Displacement
by Gay Jesus Probably
Summary: What if a normal teenager from our world was somehow transported into the Star Wars universe? Or, remember how that premise was popular back in like, 2008? This is a deconstruction of that trope. Updates every Tuesday.
1. Part 1, Chapter 1: Waking Up

**AN: Hey losers, remember how I offhandedly mentioned one time I'd be re-writing Displacement at some point? WELL I've recently been shown how Ao3's posting format work, which I didn't know before now because I'm a dumbass, so I'm finally crossposting this, and well. Good excuse to give it a re-work, right? So that's why Part 4 has been so late. Right. Definitely not just me suddenly hyperfixating on non-Star Wars fandoms. That would be ridiculous.**

 **I'd recommend giving it a re-read, as I'll probably start adding scenes as I go.**

 **Enjoy!**

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Chapter 1: Waking Up

Waking up was a surprise.

What was more surprising was that Michelle appeared to have woken up somewhere that was completely unfamiliar. Well, it made sense for the room itself to be unfamiliar, considering the circumstances she had passed out in, but instead of the hospital room she was expecting, she appeared to be in some sort of…

Well.

There really wasn't a way to describe the room beyond a sci-fi nerd's wet dream. Not that she could judge, considering she was one of those sci-fi nerds. But frankly there was a time and a place for nerd shit, and mysteriously waking up in a room of nerd shit was so far outside her comfort zone it wasn't even funny.

The door opened with a swoosh. Automatic. Okay then.

But the doors being automatic were probably not Michelle's biggest problem, considering the fact that a goddamn alien had walked in the room.

"Um." She said blankly, higher brain functions having all simultaneously packed their bags and called in their vacation time, as this shit was just too weird to deal with. She wished them the best.

"Padawan Ketros, glad to see you're awake. You took a nasty hit to the head on the mission, and passed out on the transport home. Your master's been worried sick about you, you've been out for two days!" The alien said, in a probably feminine voice, but really, who was Michelle to impose gender's on a goddamn alien. And was it just Michelle, or did she (they?) look sort of like a twilek from Star Wars?

"What the- who are you?"

The purple alien twilek lady frowned, looking concerned.

"Michelle, I've been your healer since you were nine."

"…How the fuck do you know my name? What are you talking about? What the hell is going on here!" Michelle demanded, voice steadily rising higher with panic as she scrambled backwards on the bed, avoiding the purple lady reaching for her.

"Oh dear. You seem to have gotten amnesia from that hit to the head. What's the last thing you remember?"

"I- Okay. No. I need a minute here. Just. Explain? Where am I, who are you, and what's going on here. Please." Michelle stammered out, using her panic as a convenient excuse to dodge the question. Because if they thought she was a Jedi padawan, her last memory would raise more questions than it answered. That and it was a very Not Fun memory.

The purple woman paused, and seemed to evaluate how badly Michelle was freaking out, before sitting down in a chair by the bedside.

"That's fair. I'm Jedi Master Laleh Devaron, and I work in the Halls of Healing. I've been your main healer since you were nine years old, replacing your old one who retired. You're in the Halls of Healing, in the Jedi Temple, on Couruscant. Your name is Michelle Ketros. You're fifteen years old, and are the padawan of Knight Coltin Andross. Is any of this sounding familiar?"

Michelle stared at Laleh in blank shock, mouth moving silently as she attempted to find words.

"I… need to. Go. Um. To the bathroom. Is there one nearby?" She said weakly, so completely done it wasn't even funny. Looking mildly concerned, Laleh silently pointed at a door.

"Thanks." Michelle said, giving an unconvincing smile, and bolting for the bathroom, locking herself in.

She then proceeded to sink to the floor and have a minor panic attack.

Because really, it was that or an existential crisis. And Michelle preferred to save those for crying at three in the morning in her own bed. That, and silently over chemistry notes whenever the subject of entropy came up.

After some amount of time hyperventilating on the floor, there was a knock at the door.

"Michelle? I understand that this is frightening for you, but you need to either calm down or come out, I can feel your anxiety levels from here, and they're dangerously high. Not to mention you've got a head wound with complications. If you're non-verbal right now, just knock the door in response." Laleh said calmly, in a gentle even voice.

Well, it was awfully convenient for Michelle that the weird hallucination she was in was apparently used to people freaking out, as she was decidedly _not_ able to talk right now. Rapping her knuckles against the door was considerably more feasible though, so she went ahead and did that.

"Alright, are you hyperventilating right now? One knock for yes, two for no."

She knocked once.

"That's not good, considering you've got a head wound with complications. I need you to try and get your breathing under control for me, can you do that?"

Two knocks. There wasn't a makeshift code knock for 'go fuck yourself not happening', but Michelle hoped the sentiment was conveyed anyways.

"…Sorry kiddo, that's not how it works. Okay, so whenever you're able, I need you to breathe in for four seconds, hold it for seven, and then breathe out for eight. Repeat that as much as you can, okay? It's going to be okay. Reply whenever you're able, it's alright. You're safe here."

Michelle sincerely fucking doubted that, but the panic attack wasn't helping anything. Breathing exercises it was.

It took a minute to get enough control on her breathing to manage it, but Michelle was eventually able to do the small breathing exercise. A surprising wave of calm swept through her during the breathing out, and she was able to repeat the pattern a few times, before her heart rate and breathing were somewhere in the range of normal.

"Sweetie? I can feel you've calmed down, can you talk to me, or do you need more time?"

Instead of replying, Michelle unsteadily got to her feet, and quickly splashed some water on her face from the sink, in a half-assed attempt to cover up the crying that started at some point during the panic attack. She looked up into the mirror to check if her eyes were red, and jumped in surprise.

The girl in the reflection was a virtual stranger.

Well. Not quite a stranger.

The light brown skin was the same, as was her height, face, and bright blue eyes. The only real difference was her hair, previously grown out to her waist and dyed a rich, vibrant shade of red, was now back to its natural colour of earthy brown, and barely brushed her shoulders. The only part even close to her original length was the single, thin braid that came down just past her breasts, and started just behind her ear.

A padawans braid.

Well. Shit. That would explain why she had been mistaken for a Jedi Padawan.

…But why had Laleh known her name? And age? And thought that she already knew Michelle? Last time she checked, she was not living in the Jedi temple. She was living in small town Alberta.

Well, as deeply confused as she was, staring at herself wasn't going to accomplish anything, and she really didn't want to make the healer outside break in. So, Michelle reluctantly tore her eyes away from her unfamiliar reflection, and opened the door.

Laleh had been kneeling in front of it, and was surprised with her coming out, jumping to her feet in response.

"Oh! Force, you startled me. Feeling better?"

"Tired now, but yeah." Michelle muttered in response, honestly too emotionally drained to even question the surrealism her life had turned into. She was talking to a fucking twilek. She had turned into a Jedi padawan. Awesome. Wow.

"Well, you can get some sleep in a minute, I just need to run a few scans on you, okay? Make sure nothing serious is damaged in your head. Your neurochemistry's a little strange, and we still don't quite know what makes you tick, but we can tell if something's gone seriously wrong. Not sure if we've got answers for the amnesia you clearly have, but hey. Can't win em all."

Michelle snorted quietly, and the response seemed to satisfy Laleh, as she got Michelle settled back on the bed, and murmured for her to stay still while she gently pressed her fingers around various points of Michelle's head. Probably doing some Force shit. Because this was somehow the Star Wars universe, and it's not like anything else in Michelle's life made sense now.

After about a minute of the head-touching, Laleh pulled out a small device, and slowly waved it around on top of Michelle's head, before examining a holographic readout on it.

"Hm… weird. Says here that everything's normal. Well, you're not in any danger to sleep, but I'd like to keep you the night just be certain. Alright?" Laleh said, giving Michelle a comforting smile.

"Okay."

"Get some rest sweetie. As long as nothing comes up, your master will be able to bring you back home in the morning." The twilek said warmly, patting Michelle on the shoulder before leaving the room, flicking the lights off as she went. The door closed behind her.

Michelle waited in bed for a few minutes, irrationally afraid of being caught, before slipping out from under the blankets, returning to the bathroom, and staring at herself once again.

Carefully, she lightly traces the bones of her face, making sure that it was really her, before running a hand through her hair, oddly short, but as thick as usual. The texture felt the same, despite it being the shortest she'd worn it in… well, ever.

At least the cut of her bangs was still the same, a short fringe that curled under her chin to frame her face. Although it stood out less with the rest of her hair being only a few centimeters longer.

Hesitantly, she tugged the braid, and was somehow surprised to find it real, as well as the royal blue ribbon woven in with it. Tugging harder caused a sharp pain from her scalp, due to the fact that she was pulling her own hair like an idiot.

So. This was probably real.

Well. Shit.

Michelle really wanted to lose her goddamn mind about everything, but frankly, was too drained to give a shit anymore. And that bed had been awfully soft…

Maybe this was all a dream, and she'd wake up to find herself home.

It was a small hope, but the best one she had. So, the teenager climbed back into the bed, pulled the covers up, closed her eyes, and did her best to not have that existential crisis.

It took a while to fall asleep.

* * *

" _Anyways, so I was thinking on the weekend we could go see a movie?" The girl driving the car suggested. In the passenger seat, Michelle grinned, and leaned back against her seat._

" _Yeah, sounds great. Anything in particular?"_

" _I dunno. Isn't there some new claymation movie? Kubo and the Strings or something, I don't know. I just love claymation, it's so cool." One of the boys in the backseat suggested, looking at the others for input._

" _I dunno, that stuff's really more for kids. Hey, you okay dude?" The other boy in the backseat asked, leaning forwards and looking to the driver._

" _Yeah, fine, this guys just riding my ass. Honestly, you losers are lucky I've got a license and am willing to drive us all places."_

" _We're also lucky you've got rich parents that are willing to buy you a car to celebrate that license." Michelle pointed out, although the humour in her voice made it clear that the words were meant with friendly joking._

 _The driver looked over for a second to punch Michelle on the arm, grinning._

" _Man, shut up-"_

" _LOOK OUT!" One of the boys screamed. The driver shrieked in surprise, slamming on the breaks as a car in front of them spun out on the icy winter roads, entering right into their path._

 _Behind them, the car that had been tailgating slammed into theirs. Michelle was knocked forwards with a jolt, and everything went black._

 _The funny thing was, she almost thought she heard someone calling her name._

* * *

 **AN: And there we go. Chapter one, re-written. Minor typos fixed, awkward lines changed, and a few things added. Fun fun.**

 **For those of you that are new, you can see all the character designs on my Tumblr, Gay-Jesus-Probably, under the hashtag 'holy shit it's my writing'. Or you can just look the Ao3 account… also Gay_Jesus_Probably.**

 **There's a key difference, the one has spaces, Ao3 has underscores, and tumblr has dashes. Completely different usernames. Shut up.**


	2. Part 1, Chapter 2: Ash and Dust

**AN: Chapter two remake. Keeping this train rolling along. Choo choo.**

 **Enjoy!**

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Chapter 2: Ash and Dust

Michelle woke up from the nightmare with a sharp inhale, heart pounding in her chest. For a long moment she lay frozen, the phantom feeling of violent impact keeping her paralyzed in blind terror, before she took a deep, shuddering breath, and sat up in bed.

The lights were still off, but the room was brighter, sunlight filtering in through the curtains outside.

And she was still in the Jedi temple hospital room.

Fuck.

Alone for now, she curled up, resting her head against her knees as she thought.

So. Last thing she remembered was getting into a car accident, as her nightmare had so kindly reminded her. Maybe it was somehow the reason for her mysterious teleportation? It was something worth thinking about.

…Maybe she was just in a coma.

This was some 2008 fanfiction dot net level bullshit right here.

Did that mean Michelle was the shitty self-insert? She hoped not. If she was actually based off someone, that would be a very sad someone.

Before her musing could go any further down the metaphorical rabbit hole, the door swooshed open again, and a man entered.

He was tall. Really tall. Human, fortunately, with a mop of curly dark brown hair, and warm eyes of a similar shade. He was wearing dark green Jedi tunics, without sleeves for some reason, showing his admittedly impressively muscled arms. He looked to be in his late twenties, and the laugh lines around his eyes suggested a cheerful personality. But right now, the man only looked relieved.

"Michelle! You're awake! Oh thank _Force_ , I've been so worried about you! I mean honestly, I thought I'd gotten you killed or something, do you know what the council would do to me? Because I don't, but I've certainly been imagining it. I mean, not that I wouldn't absolutely deserve this hypothetical punishment because oh my god who gets their first Padawan killed? Me, apparently! Throw me off the temple spire, karma I am yours to do as you will!" He rambled, although there was a distinct note of humour to his words, and the words all seemed to be born out of joy that she was alright.

"I mean, it's not like I'm actually dead. Right? If I'm dying and nobody's told me, I'm gonna be pissed." She warned in response, raising her eyebrows in slight alarm. The man laughed.

"Nah, you're fine. Apart from that amnesia that seems to have cleared up…?"

"No, that is absolutely a thing. Also, who exactly are you?"

His face shifted from relief to worry again, eyebrows scrunching in concern.

"I'm Coltin Andross. I'm your master, padawan." He said gently, and Michelle could almost see the shift of him wondering just how delicately she needed to be handled at this point. Stranded in a fictional universe or not, Michelle sure as shit wasn't _fragile._

"Oh, good, I was worried you were a kidnapper or some shit. So, Laleh said that you'd be able to take me home today if I was still okay. …Am I still okay? Because this place looks like it's gonna get really old, really fast, and I'd like to see this so called home I apparently have."

His grin returned, although it wasn't quite as large as it had been before. Good enough.

"Sure thing kid. Brought you some clothes, how about you get changed while I sort out the paperwork with Laleh?" Coltin suggested, tossing a cloth bag down on the bed. Inside the bag, there appeared to be a full change of clothes, although the only specific thing Michelle could see was the dark brown leather shoes sitting on top.

"Yeah, okay. I'll just… change into this then." She said, grabbing the bag and getting out of bed, heading over to the bathroom for the third time.

The whole clothing thing turned out to be slightly more complicated than she expected.

For starters, stripping led to the not entirely unwelcome surprise that her hairstyle wasn't the only dramatically different part of herself.

Normally, Michelle's stomach had a noticeably pudge to it, and the fact that the most exercise she got was pacing and walking to school was evident. She wasn't exactly obese, but she certainly wasn't trying out for any sports teams.

All of that was gone now. She was athletic. She was ripped. _She had a fucking six pack_.

On the downside, it seemed that with the lack of body fat, her former impressive curves were gone. She certainly wasn't a pencil, but her hips seemed to have re-gained the ability to lie. And was it her imagination, or had she gone down a cup size?

But enough of staring at herself and touching her muscles. She had some weird clothes to put on.

Thankfully, the bra was standard, and fit comfortably – actually better than anything she'd had at home. Things were looking good already. Unfortunately, after that things went slightly downhill, as it seems her Jedi outfit was slightly outside of her usual taste.

The low cut teal tank top seemed to be some sort of undershirt, matched with black, baggy pants that seemed to be some sort of cross between sweat pants and yoga pants. Either way, they were comfortable, so whatever. The problem arose with the over shirt, which was a rich shade of purple, and hung longer than she was used to wearing her shirts. It also had an unfortunate lack of sleeves, which always made her twitchy for some damn reason. The neckline was a deep dramatic V-neck, which went down to the bottom of her ribcage, and the undershirt became the only thing keeping the outfit within the range of classy. And also within the nice range of not flashing people. Michelle greatly preferred to be in that range.

And the real problem was with a long strip of cloth, also a rich purple, but a lighter shade than the shirt. It wasn't a scarf. It wasn't a belt. There was no logical use for it.

After about five minute trying to puzzle it out, Michelle concluded that Jedi fashion was stupid, regardless of how good she looked, and left the fresher with the thing just held in her hand.

Coltin was waiting in the room for her, and he raised his eyebrows upon seeing her not in the full outfit.

"Couldn't figure out how to put this on." She explained without being asked, holding up the weird cloth thing in explanation.

"Kiddo, that's your tabard."

"I see, I see. And a tabard is…?"

Coltin snorted, and approached her, before holding out his hand, and silently asking for permission. After a moment's hesitance, she gave the tabard to him, and let him put it on for her, it turning out to follow the edge of the shirt's neckline, before wrapping around her hips. The end result did admittedly look good, and wasn't overly weird, so Michelle was relatively cool with it. Even if she was fairly certain she wouldn't be able to figure out how to put it on by herself.

Once she was fully dressed, the two left the room, and Coltin headed down the hall, clearly knowing where he was going. As Michelle didn't, she trailed after him, trusting the man to know what was going on.

Laleh was sitting at a desk near what Michelle thought was the front, and waved at them on the way by. Coltin returned the gesture, and so did Michelle, although her wave was a bit shyer, on account of her feeling awkward as hell in the unfamiliar surroundings.

And then, they left the Halls of Healing, entering the main temple.

Even with Michelle's limited knowledge of architecture, she could tell it was _beautiful_ , with a high, airy ceiling, columns along the walls, and the whole place lit by lights that Michelle couldn't see, but that gave the impression of natural sunlight. That, combined with the tan stone of the walls, gave the hall the impression of warmth and peace.

Coltin noticed her staring, and grinned.

"Can't say I've ever seen you this happy walking out of the healers." He joked, eyebrows raising.

"Sorry, I just… don't remember any of this. It's amazing seeing it for the first time."

He patted her on the shoulder, the look on his face almost paternal.

"Don't apologize for it, I completely understand. But, we should probably get you home, alright? Come on kiddo."

Once again, she had no damn idea where home was, and just followed him. Honestly, this was starting to get frustrating.

But well, she was in the fucking Jedi temple. That made up for some of the frustration.

Upon reaching the apartment, Coltin opened the door and entered, followed by a slightly awkward Michelle.

Coltin kicked his shoes off at the entry, and Michelle followed suit, privately glad that apparently the Jedi didn't wear shoes inside their own damn homes. Because that was weird. Who did that? Weird people.

Shoe-based judgement aside, the apartment's aesthetic differed from the rest of the temple, in that instead of the elegant open design the public spaces seemed to prefer, the apartment was cozy, and had a distinct atmosphere of home to it.

There was a comfortable looking couch, dark brown with a slightly tacky, yet charming pattern on the fabric. Beside it was a matching loveseat, with a Jedi robe that someone had flung over the back. The coffee table had some clutter to it, in a box of tissues, a few devices Michelle didn't recognize, and a pair of mugs, both empty of liquid, but dirty. There were three doors in the main room, two of them closed, and the open one leading to a bathroom. There was a fourth opening that led to a kitchen, which seemed to have the dining table inside of it.

Coltin noticed her examining the space, and sighed.

"Guess you don't remember home either, huh?"

"Nope. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it kid. So, this is the living room, we take our shoes off at the door because we're not barbarians, kitchen's in there, fresher's there, closed door on the left is my room, closed door on the right is your room. And I don't know if you remember this quirk of yours or not, but don't worry. I didn't go into your room while you were out. Although we are missing an alarming amount of mugs, and I know it's not me, so if you could clean up in there at some point, it would be very appreciated. Because if I have to drink my morning coffee right out of the pot, nobody's going to be having fun."

"Uh… actually, I think I need some time to myself to process everything. Is it okay if I just go and lock myself in my room for a while and question literally everything?"

"That's fair. Yell if you need anything."

And so Michelle fucked off to lock herself in what was apparently her room.

The first thing she noticed was that the room, while completely unfamiliar to her, certainly looked like a room that she would like to have.

There was a bed jammed in the corner, right up against the wall like she liked it, and covered in a dark blue comforter, and what seemed to be at least seven pillows. Which was excellent, as she was the sort of person that needed a fucking nest of pillows to have any hope at managing that whole 'sleep' thing. Not that she was much of a sleeper as it was, but whatever. Stuck to the wall over the bed was a string of what appeared to be Christmas lights, turned on and giving off faint, yet colourful light. Beside the bed was a desk, which had something that might have been a computer on it, and another stack of the devices that had been on the coffee table outside, and appeared to be something along the lines of tablets. And, as Coltin had pointed out, several used mugs were sitting in various places on the desk. Against one of the walls was a set of shelves, disorganized and cluttered with various objects. Michelle could tell what about half of them were for. On the floor was a pile of laundry, various pants, tunics and robes having been kicked together near the foot of the bed. A small door clearly led to a closet, and sticking her head inside showed that it was stocked with more clothing of a similar style, all Jedi tunics and pants.

Michelle exited the closet, and sat down on the bed, looking around at the room.

None of it was hers.

Anxiety welled up again, and she curled up in a ball, grabbing at her hair with an upset groan.

Going for her hair probably wasn't the best move, as it only served to remind her of the changed style. There was literally nothing familiar to ground herself with anymore.

Right before she could tip over the edge into another goddamn panic attack, she heard a voice, faint and whispery.

"H-hello? Who's there?" Michelle demanded, sitting up again and looking around.

' _Try meditating.'_ The voice said, clearer than before, yet still distant. And despite that, somehow, it sounded… weirdly familiar. Despite the fact that at the faint volume, all Michelle could really get from it was that it was feminine.

"Who are you?" She tried again, still looking in vain for the source of it.

' _Meditate.'_ The girls voice repeated, before Michelle got the odd sense that its presence had left.

"Fuck it. Nothing better to do." She muttered under her breath, settling back down on the bed in a cross legged position, tipping her head back against the wall, and closing her eyes.

Michelle really wasn't the sort of person to meditate, but for some reason today, she was able to focus almost immediately, the soft sound of her even breathing washing over her.

And then…

Lights.

Dozens- no, thousands of lights around her, shining in the void like stars, each one unique. Some were moving, some not, some gave off impressions of emotions, while others seemed shielded off.

The closest light was vaguely familiar, and radiated calm, mixed in with a slight undercurrent of worry. It felt like… Coltin?

Was this the Force?

' _Obviously. Do you not have that?'_ The girl's voice said, volume slightly louder than it had been before.

"I- who are you? What's going on here?"

' _Ugh. Wish I knew. Let's just say I think you're getting the better end of the deal with this whole mess. Look, just play along with whatever assumptions everyone's drawn, I'm going to busy for a while trying to fix this and figure out what happened. Don't do anything stupid, alright?'_

"...The hell does that mean?"

' _Hang on, we've got a better connection here, maybe I can get you to actually see me…'_

Around Michelle, a flat grey floor suddenly formed, as she felt a disconnect from her body. While it was sitting on the bed, and she was still aware of it, the awareness was faint, in the same way somebody knows that there's something behind them, but they don't care enough to check any details about it.

' _Need you to stay calm here, I think between the two of us we can get something to work with…_ ' The voice said, now up to normal speaking tone, and sounding close. Like it was sitting across from Michelle.

Across from her in the mindscape, an outline formed, faint at first, but gaining distinction, shimmering slightly. She was just starting to see the shape of the person that was forming-

A hand came down on the shoulder of her body, and the meditation shattered, the teenager abruptly shoved back into her body.

Blinking rapidly to clear her suddenly spinning vision, she looked up to see a concerned Coltin standing above her.

"Sorry to bother you, but you weren't answering the door, so I got worried. Anyways, since I forgot to earlier, here's your lightsaber back. Please do not stab the walls." He joked, offering a silver hilt to her. She hesitantly took it, inspecting the details carefully, feeling its steady weight in her hands. Something about it felt right, like it was meant to be in her hands. The feeling was probably the Force, since she apparently had access to it somehow.

"How do I activate it?" She asked after a moment, not finding an easy solution right away, and being oddly curious about the colour of the blade, and just how it felt to hold an activated lightsaber.

"Well, the first step is aiming away from your wonderful master… thank you, and then you just hit this button here, and- there you go!"

A bright blue blade activated, and the hilt hummed in Michelle's hand, the feeling of rightness seeping into her bones. She let the moment hang, eyes fixated on the blue blade, before shutting it off again.

"Fuckin' sweet."

This was met with a gentle tug to her braid, courtesy of Coltin.

"Language."

"Sorry."

"Anyways, your hooliganism aside, the other reason I came in here is because your friends are here to see you, now that we're sure you're not dying or anything."

"Oh, okay." Michelle replied, still feeling slightly giddy from the feeling of holding a fucking lightsaber. Then the words caught up to her, and she dropped the hilt on her bed in surprise, looking at Coltin with wide eyes.

"Wait, I'm sorry, I have friends?"

* * *

 **AN: Yes Michelle. Yes you do. And those of you re-reading already know who everyone is and how the whole friendship thing goes for them, so… yeah.**

 **Those of you that are here for the first time, oh boy. Oh Boy. Hang on kids, cause this ones a ride.**


	3. Part 1, Chapter 3: Wipe My Brow

**AN: Hello everybody! Happy Friday! Damn, we've been at this a whole week. Welp, enough about that, let's roll on into the new chapter!**

 **Also, we've got three new OC's introduced this chapter. Just like to remind everyone that if you want to see the designs for the girls, they're all on my Tumblr, Gay-Blue-Space-Rock under the tag "holy shit it's my writing". The guys you're going to have to use your imagination because they're not as fun to design for.**

 **And y'know how I said part one is 13 chapters? That's kinda up in the air now, because I worked on a fair part of this chapter while not being able to access the outline, and realised after I got home that I'd mashed the events of chapters 3 and 4 together. Then I realised it worked better together so fuck it. This is basically a double update. I'm spoiling you people. I'm thinking I'll fix it by moving some events of Part 2 Chapter 1 around, and using it as Part 1 Chapter 12 instead. I dunno. Sometimes you just gotta wing it, even with the outlines.**

 **Enjoy!**

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Chapter 3: Wipe My Brow

"Wait, I have FRIENDS!?" Michelle blurted out, eyebrows raising in automatic surprise.

"Wow, rude." A boy deadpanned, wandering into the room, followed by a graceful looking albino girl. She seemed to be older that Michelle, possibly around seventeen, while the boy…

"What is that, a fucking gremlin?"

"I'm not a gremlin, I'm a twelve year old!"

"…Is there a difference?"

"You're awfully salty today. Were the healers stabbier than usual?" The girl asked, raising an eyebrow and smiling in amusement.

"Uh, guys, she's got amnesia. Doesn't remember anything. Don't take anything too personally, alright? Go easy on her." Coltin ordered, before leaving, letting the kid and the girl into Michelle's room.

"So… amnesia, huh?" The girl asked, her look shifting from amused to concern. Michelle was getting real sick of people being concerned over her. At least this time the worrier was a pretty girl.

"Yeah. Who are you by the way?" Michelle demanded bluntly. She probably could have been more polite, but frankly, being pulled out of the meditation right when she was probably about to get answers was enough to slam dunk her into a pissy mood.

The girl sat down on the bed beside Michelle, neatly brushing a loose strand of white hair behind her ear. While she wore her hair at the same length as Michelle's new style, hers was neat and straight, as compared to Michelle's wavy and slightly unruly mass of hair. The girls tunic was pure white, with the loose pants an extremely light grey. Her undershirt was an extremely pale violet, and covered everything up her neck, and the tunic had a more modest neckline that Michelle's anyways. She also had sleeves, long and baggy. Her tabard was lilac, and seemed to be the same type as Michelle's, although her waist was cinched with a wide cloth belt of the same colour as the tabard. Now that Michelle was actually looking at her, she was extremely pretty.

"You're extremely pretty." Michelle blurted out, before flushing, and mentally commanding her gay ass to calm the hell down. Fortunately, the girl didn't seem offended, and laughed instead, exchanging amused looks with the boy.

"I see some things never change. I'm Seha, and he's Isaac. We've been friends for years. I'm seventeen, Isaac is twelve. We've got two more friends, that are both crechemates of yours, but they're both out of the Temple right now."

"Wow. More than two friends. That's really impressive, by my standards. I should get an award. Made multiple friends. Jedi of the fuckin' year here."

Seha snorted, and Isaac snickered. Things then lapsed into an awkward silence.

It was the sort of awkward silence where the entire room knows it's painfully awkward, and is desperately trying not to acknowledge it, in order to just pray the awkwardness goes away. Incidentally, it was not going away.

Finally, after about five minutes of half assed attempts at conversation, Michelle gave in to brutal honesty.

"So, just checking here, I'm not the only one finding this painfully awkward, right? It's not just me and my lack of memories? Because on my end, it's just two strangers in my room talking like they know me - er, no offense - and I'm sure it's got to be a little weird on the other side of things. Right? I'm not just crazy here?" Michelle said, looking around at the other two teenagers with raised eyebrows.

"No, no, it is supremely awkward. I've been regretting life choices for the last five minutes." Isaac immediately agreed, nodding in agreement with Michelle's statement.

"Well, I wasn't going to just call us out like that, but yes, this has been a bit awkward. Maybe we should go?" Seha suggested, getting off the bed. A slightly irrational stab of guilt went through Michelle.

"Oh, no- I didn't mean it like leave, I meant it like- fuck, what did I mean it like?"

Seha laughed.

"Oh, honey, no, I meant the three of us should go walk around the temple, see if we can spark something in your head. Or, at the very least, let you get re-acquainted with both us, and the temple."

"Well. That's better than what I had expected. Yeah, I'd be in for that. Uh, Isaac, are you okay with it?"

The ginger gave a long sigh, and flopped back on the bed, an arm dramatically falling over his eyes.

"Ugh. I wish. Nah, I've got class starting in - good lord, ten minutes. I need to run. Is it acceptable to show up late for temporal physics class and claim you accidentally time traveled?"

"Probably not. I'd haul ass if I were you." Michelle advised, earlier awkwardness fading. The younger boy got to his feet, grabbed his bag, and gave a small salute.

"Comrades, I leave you now, though not for any ominous reason. One day, I will come back. And until that day, carry forwards in your beliefs, and prove to me I am not mistaken in mine-"

"Your class starts in eight minutes now." Seha calmly pointed out, interrupting the blossoming monologue.

"FUCK!" Isaac yelped, before sprinting from the room, and out of the apartment, still dragging out the vowel of the word as he fled.

Michelle and Seha were left standing in the room, his glorious departure hanging in the air between them.

"There he goes. Our idiot son." Seha said with a fond sigh, folding her hands over her heart. Michelle burst out giggling, and was quickly joined by the other girl.

The door to the bedroom opened again, and a confused looking Coltin stuck his head in.

"Does someone want to explain why a thirteen year old sprinted out of here while holding an impressively drawn out swear?"

"Temporal physics and monologues." Michelle deadpanned, before breaking out into giggles again.

"...I don't understand kids these days." He sighed, before closing the door again, sparking a third round of giggles.

"So, you want to head out?" Seha suggested once her laughter had finished, eyes still sparkling with amusement.

"Yeah, sure, let's go! ...Where are we going?"

There was a pause, as they both thought over the subject.

"We could head down to the salles for a spar?" Seha suggested, a hopeful look to her face.

Michelle winced, looking over at the lightsaber hilt on her bed.

"I… don't think that's a good idea. I mean- I don't actually remember how, and I think we're just asking for someone - probably me - to get their head cut off. And… I kind of like my head not cut off. If that makes any sense."

Seha frowned, but nodded slowly.

"I will admit, I also prefer your head not cut off. Oh! I could teach you! I'm literally the top of our age group in lightsaber fighting, and even though you don't remember the moves, the muscle memory's still there. You'd be an easy student, you're normally great at this stuff. Oh! And this would be great practice, or extra credit, we've gotta do this! Come on, I'll be mostly gentle!" She exclaimed, eyes wide with excitement.

Michelle took a cautious step back, eyeing the older girl carefully.

"You… uh, you really enjoy fighting, huh?"

" _So much_. I'm working on becoming the combat master of the temple, I know I can do it! And I've been working on expanding my form, right now I've just got one lightsaber but there's a quartet of white crystals in our archives with my name on them, I just know I'm meant to fight with two double-ended blade. Er, but we're getting ahead of ourselves. My violent and glowing future aside, I'm sure I'd make a great teacher for you. I'm already working as a teaching assistant for the youngling classes. Not that you're a youngling. You're less… I don't know. Young."

"Alright, I guess I'll go for a spar with you…"

"REALLY!? Sweet! Come on, grab your saber, let's go right now! Oh, I am going to teach you so much, do you remember what your usual form is? Of course you don't, what am I saying, let's go, we'll do this from the top, it's going to be amazing, and I mean obviously you're not a form I or II person, but I think you were mostly-"

"Seha! I don't actually know what you're talking about!" Michelle protested, casually removing her arm from the other girls' excited grip. This didn't affect her enthusiasm in the slightest.

"I know! Isn't it great? Come on!"

Michelle had the distinct feeling she was getting herself into something that she would probably regret. But she had agreed to it, and frankly, the opportunity to actually learn how to use a lightsaber was just so fucking cool how could she _not_ do it? So, ignoring her slight feeling of dread, she grabbed her lightsaber off the table, and followed Seha out of the room.

"Where are you girls off to now?" Coltin asked looking up from the datapad he'd been reading on the couch.

"I'm going to re-introduce Michelle to sparring!"

"Shocking. I take it your usual partner is out of the temple?"

"Ugh, _yes_. Neria's not going to be back for another week. At least Zinnia's back tomorrow, she's usually good for a few rounds."

"Keep this up, and the only person who's going to be able to keep up with will be Kenobi. Have fun, and don't run Michelle too hard!"

"Pfft, I'm good, but I'm not Kenobi good. Come on 'Chelle, I need to kick your ass. For _science_. Or something like that."

And with that, Michelle was dragged out of the apartment, neither party noticing her shocked expression.

They were talking about Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Which, if Michelle's knowledge of Star Wars was right (and it usually was), meant that he was most likely knighted, or at least old enough to have made a hell of a name for himself. Probably knighted, as Seha mentioned she wasn't as good as him, but that she was the best in their age group.

Which meant that Michelle was in a point in time where she was potentially at risk of Order 66. No, not potentially, definitely.

Well. Fuck.

* * *

There were worse situations to be in, really. She could have ended up in the old republic era. That would be bad, on account of her not really holding more than a general knowledge of that time in the Star Wars lore. As in, she knew there was some dude named Revan and he did some things, and that was it. On the flip side, she could have ended up in Imperial times. That would have been even worse, as not only would she have not had a Jedi order to go to, she would have been a Force Sensitive with no training, in a galaxy where a massive genocide of Force Sensitives was ongoing. So knowing the sequence of events would have been little help there, as she definitely couldn't have lived to get to any position to influence them.

Yeah, it was probably for the best she was in the last few years of the republic.

How many of those years she had would have to be figured out though.

Provided this wasn't all some weird coma, which she still wasn't completely certain of, she essentially had knowledge of the future. Exactly when she was would be harder to find out, as she'd never remembered how the Republic dating system worked, and as she was before the Battle of Yavin, nobody was using BBY or ABY dating systems yet. Possibly nobody ever would, as she'd never known if that was a canon thing, or just a fan thing.

Time difficulties aside, her best way of figuring out the timeline… well, it would depend.

She'd figured it was after the incident on Naboo, yet before the end of the Republic. At most, she had thirteen years before the Order was called. At worst, she had like, a day.

...Now that was a terrifying thought.

First things first, if Order 66 was called while she was in the Temple, she was bolting. At least for right now, she'd be completely helpless, and she sure as shit wasn't going to sit around waiting for Vader to massacre her.

If the Clone Wars were running, she had anywhere between three years, to that one day. She'd wait to see if she saw a clone, or heard something about a war, and then she could orient herself by finding out how long the wars been running. Simple.

If the Clone Wars weren't on yet, and god she hoped they weren't, her best shot would be finding Anakin Skywalker, and using his age to orient herself. She'd never been able to remember the specifics of anyone's age, but she had known that he had been 19 when the Clone Wars started.

So, first order of business. Find Anakin Skywalker, and then make plans.

"Alright, here's the salles!" Seha said cheerfully from somewhere in front of Michelle, snapping her out of her plotting.

"...Huh?" She said intelligently, slightly off balance from being brought out of her deep musing.

"Wow, what's on your mind? You were zoned out the entire way down here."

"Ah… nothing really, just… things. Not important, don't worry about it. So, uh, sparring?"

"Yes! Right! Sparring!"

Michelle pushed her plans to the side as Seha dragged her into a sparring salle. She would have time to plan this stuff later anyways. For now, she had to learn how to fight with a goddamn lightsaber. Which, regardless of the time, fell in with her plans, so technically speaking this was going to be a productive afternoon no matter what.

Michelle wasn't entirely sure if she was in a good situation or a bad situation, but the fact that 'learning how to lightsaber fight' was a genuine activity she could do was a massive plus on the whole mess.

* * *

Learning how to lightsaber fight was literally the worst thing ever.

Even with her brand new muscles that she had somehow, Michelle was still sore and exhausted by the end of it. The multiple burns didn't help, even with the lightsabers having been set to low.

Seha had been happy about her progress though, claiming that she burned through the equivalent of three years of basic training in their five hour session. Apparently muscle memory really was a factor in this, which was another thing Michelle was pushing to the back of her mind in the 'weird thing with no explanations' pile. And who was happy to fight for five hours? Apparently Seha was. She really hadn't been kidding about her goals as a combat master.

Staggering into the door of the apartment hurt, and she was seriously considering just sleeping on the couch. This marvelous plan was foiled by the fact that Coltin was sitting on this couch.

"Move, I'm gay." She ordered, before flopping face first into it. Fortunately, Coltin was on the far end, so instead of face planting into his lap, she was merely doing her best to make her torso and head one with the cushions, while her legs stuck out over the armrest.

"You move, I'm pan." Coltin retorted, shoving her back a bit. She gave an incoherent groan in response.

"Did you have fun with Seha today?" He asked, in the tone of someone who knew the answer and was just asking to be a dick.

"Seha is a monster. She is a monster and she wants me to suffer. Just one more round she said. _Fifteen fucking times_."

"In all fairness, you believed her fifteen times."

"I'm a sucker for a pretty girl. Damn, this is my problem. Girls. I should run away and become a cave hermit. No more girls. I'll be free. Life could be good for me."

Coltin ruffled her hair, earning a drawn out noise of protest that eventually shifted into a general complaint at the existence of the world. It was really impressive how much feeling Michelle could put into a single sound.

"Well, after dinner you can stagger off to bed. We're temple bound for at least a month until you're judged combat ready again, so you've got a lot of work ahead of you. Oh, and let's not even talk about what you're going to have to do to get up to scratch in your classes."

Michelle groaned again, and continued her valiant attempt to fuse with the couch.

"Hey. For what it's worth, your memories might come back. We don't know for sure. And even if they don't, you've probably got a lot of things up in there subconsciously. It's not that bad of a setback. And even if it does turn out to be a massive setback, or you never get your memories back, I'm not giving up on you kiddo. We're gonna make you a Jedi Knight, even if it takes an extra decade or so."

Michelle was glad for the fact that her face was merged with the couch, because she had a sudden, embarrassing prickle of tears in her eyes. Goddamn gratitude, making her have feelings. Goddamn Jedi, accidentally being extremely comforting.

And above all, goddamn Seha for getting her tired enough to be visibly emotional. Her cool kid façade. Ruined.

She needed to find new friends. Or hold out to meet the other two that she apparently had. Or both. Both was good.

But for now, she'd settle for dinner and bed.

* * *

The next day, Coltin took her down to the salles again for some training that wasn't at Seha's level of fucking crazy.

The pace was a lot slower for one thing, and he seemed to have a better understanding of the fact that she genuinely had no idea what she was doing. Her apparent muscle memory could only really take her so far, and it was slow going after the barebones basics were done with. Fortunately, Coltin was a lot more forgiving than Seha.

They started up in the morning, and worked straight until noon. Right as Coltin was taking her through a cool down exercise, a dark skinned girl wandered into the salle, and called a greeting to both of them.

She was tall, in that she was the same height as Michelle, but wore her hair shorter, messy curls that barely touched the base of her ears. A padawan braid stood out, around the same length as Michelle's.

While she was wearing what appeared to be the standard issue pants, hers in black, she had forgone the normal tunics, tabards and robes, and instead wore a low-cut navy blue tank top, with a leather jacket. And were those combat boots?

Clearly, this girl was the rebellious type. Michelle was interested.

"Sup Master Andross! Just got back to the temple like, an hour ago, heard about Michelle's injury. Mind if I kidnap her to get re-acquainted?" The girl called, an easy going grin on her face. Michelle got to her feet from her earlier stretch, and gave her master a questioning look, wondering if it was okay, or if she had lessons to get into now or something.

Coltin responded with a warm grin.

"Sure, you can-"

"Awesome! Because I was gonna do it anyways, but now I'm allowed to. Sweet! Come on dude, I need to re-introduce you to your favourite spot. You love it. Will love it. Force, it's almost like I already know you or something. I'm Zinnia by the way, since you apparently don't remember me, we're the same age. Crechemates and besties."

Zinnia kept up rambling along that lines, a constant stream of happy chatter as she manhandled Michelle out of the salles, and then dragged her around the temple. It was almost impressive how long one person could spend _talking_ , even with Michelle not managing any responses beyond vague noises.

Frankly, all the chatter was making her slightly uncomfortable. But this girl was supposed to be Michelle's childhood friend, so asking her to tone it down would be… weird. Better to just blend in and roll with things. Since Michelle had somehow ended up in the Star Wars universe, with everyone thoroughly convinced she lived her entire life there and belonged in the temple. Really, at that point you need to stop questioning things, and just roll with the punches.

Finally, after a ridiculous amount of walking and endless chatter from Zinnia, they arrived at a small garden, out of the way, with was seemed to be a deep lake taking up most of it.

"Like, nobody comes here, it's so out of the way. Nice and private. I mean, I know you prefer crowded public areas, but some stuff we just gotta do alone, y'know?" Zinnia said, offering Michelle a friendly grin. She forced a smile and a nod in return, despite mentally wondering what the hell was going on. Michelle _hated_ crowds and public spaces. Honestly, this was getting so surreal.

And then things got even more surreal, as Zinnia slammed her against the wall with the Force, and drew her lightsaber, aiming it at Michelle with pure murder in her eyes.

" _Who the fuck are you?_ " Zinnia growled, mouth set in a hard scowl, and aggression clear in every part of her stance.

* * *

 **AN: Welp, see you Tuesday.**

 **Look, for what it's worth, the space between chapters hurts for me too. But this schedule is good, keeps me accountable or whatever the fuck. Besides, now that I'm fucking around with the outline, things might get shaken up a bit. Oh, sure, I'm keeping the plot lines the same, but details and timing might get shifted around.**

 **Also, I hope you all like Zinnia, because out of all the friend OC's, she's the one who's going to get the most screen time. What context will this screen time be in? Well. At risk of being a cliché, that's for me to know, and you to find out. But let's just say she holds a special place in my heart and leave it at that.**


	4. Part 1, Chapter 4: Sweat My Rust

**AN: Hello everyone, welcome back! This chapter introduces two more new character… sort of. One of them is new, the other one… yes and no. And it's not so much introduces, as points out their existence. They don't turn up for realsies until chapter 12.**

* * *

Part 1, Chapter 4: Sweat My Rust

"Who the fuck are you?" Zinnia demanded, lightsaber aimed at Michelle and murder in her eyes.

"Holy shit- what? Are we talking like- literal? Or metaphysical? I don't understand what's happening also please move the lightsaber you're scaring me." She blurted out, trying to ignore the way she was shaking in fear. Zinnia's glare deepened in response.

"Don't fuck with me. You're not Michelle. Amnesia or not, you're not her. You might have tricked everyone else, but I can tell you aren't Padawan Ketros. Now who the fuck are you!?"

"I- I don't know! I mean, I am Michelle Ketros, just not… your Michelle, if that makes any sense? I don't know how I got here, this isn't my world, I just want to get home again. Seriously, I don't know how I've switched places with this other Michelle, but I didn't mean to, really! Now please put the lightsaber down? I'm a civilian! I'm not tough, I'm barely even a functional human being! One time I accidentally hot glued a jellybean to my ass!"

Zinnia's murderous look shifted to something a bit more confused, and the lightsaber wavered, blade lowering a little.

"You… aren't lying." She said slowly, like she couldn't quite believe that fact herself.

"Like I'm stupid enough to lie to the girl holding a goddamn lightsaber to my throat. Can you put me down please? Seriously, I couldn't hurt you even if I wanted to. Which I don't. Because you could clearly kick my ass."

Zinnia sighed, and put Michelle back on the ground, the pressure holding her against the wall gone. Michelle slumped to the ground, legs shaking, and let out a long sigh of relief. Above her, the other girl gave her a long, unimpressed stare.

"Man, if I hadn't figured it out already, that would have done it. Michelle would never be such a wimp about something like that." Zinnia muttered, before flopping down on the grass beside Michelle.

"Y'know, my name is actually Michelle. It's a little weird to have you using my name to refer to someone else. Also, fuck you you're terrifying, and it's not like I know you or anything-"

"Stop talking kid."

"Okay."

There was a silence for a while, as Michelle managed to stop shaking. Zinnia was still flopped out on the grass, an arm covering her eyes, breathing deep and even. After an embarrassingly long time wondering if she'd fallen asleep, Michelle realised that the other girl was meditating, probably trying to figure out what to do with her not-friend.

Honestly, Michelle wished she knew what to do as well.

Finally, Zinnia broke her breathing pattern by letting out a long sigh, and sat up again, eyes calm and fixed on Michelle.

"Alright. So. Let's go over this with more detail, and less terror. Tell me about your normal life, and how you think you ended up here. Talk to me dude."

"O-oh. Well, uh, I'm from a planet called Earth, and we don't have space travel or anything yet. I mean, we're putting people in space, but the furthest we've ever gone is the moon. Er, we don't have the Force, or anything like that, nobody has any sort of powers. I'm a high school student in grade ten- er, that is to say, I'm in my eleventh year of education, kids start school when they're four or five. Uh, we don't have holograms or anything, so this stuff is ridiculously advanced by my standards. Last I remember, I was in a car with my friends, and last thing I remember is us getting hit by another car. So, I'm thinking that has something to do with how I got here. The crash, I mean."

Zinnia made a humming noise, pressing her knuckles against her mouth in thought, dark eyes far away. Michelle had the distinct feeling that the wheels were turning quickly in her head, picking apart everything Michelle had said.

"Hm. It's… possible? This is some extremely theoretical territory we're running into. Which is unfortunate, as Michelle- er, my Michelle - was always the one that took these sorts of classes. Everything I know about theoretical temporal physics and the multiverse theory, I just kind of absorbed from her rambling about assignments, and her own ideas on the subject. But from the sounds of things, you're an alternate version of Michelle, and somehow you've ended up in our dimension. Which, on the one hand, is supremely cool, but on the other hand we need to get everyone back in their proper places. Or things could go bad. I don't know if this is messing with some universal stability or whatever, but I for one don't want to risk it, y'know. So. Let's see if we can't get everyone back where they belong. First of all, you said you got into a car accident. Was the impact that last thing you remember?"

"Yeah, we got hit from behind, I was knocked forwards, and then nothing."

"And our Michelle got put down by a nasty hit to the head. This is getting confusing, so to clear things up, for now you can be Michelle, and the one that belongs here can be Padawan Ketros, or just Ketros, okay? Okay. So, you both experienced violent high impact events. Maybe they're linked? Transferal of energy or something?"

"Uh… maybe both of us getting hit with like, the same force at the same time caused a switch or something? And I mean with Ketros having the Force, that could have been a catalyst for the change or something. We both got hit, passed out, and woke up in each other's places?" Michelle suggested, shrugging slightly. Zinnia frowned.

"Well, normally that would work, but I read the report. On the mission, Ketros and Master Andross got caught up in a riot as the situation destabilized, and the locals attempted to take it out on the two of them. They were separated, and Michelle took a nasty hit to the head, but managed to keep going, and steal a ship that got her into hyperspace headed for Couruscant. She was awake and coherent in the atmosphere of the planet to contact Master Andross, but somewhere during her solo hyperspace journey she passed out, and you woke up. Was it a physical transfer or just a switch of minds, do you think?"

"Minds. I keep my hair long, and bright red. Not to mention that my physique isn't nearly this ripped ordinarily."

"Alright, that's kind of what I expected. Well, here's a thought. Did you pass out from a hit to the head? Did you get any kind of injury, or do things just cut out with the car hitting?"

"No, I wasn't hurt that I know of, I blacked out the second we were hit."

"Hm. It's possible that you remained in your universe after the accident, and are just repressing the accident. You're a civilian, right? Don't bother answering that, it shows. Maybe your brain just couldn't process the trauma, and shut off the memories before it could hit you? Er, no pun intended there."

Michelle let out a shaky breath, running a hand through her hair.

"That's deep man. You think something that traumatizing could have happened?"

"No idea, these are just theories. Meditate on it, and see if you can get some memories back past the black out. Er- shit, you don't know how to meditate, do you?"

"No, no, I figured that out myself. Managed it yesterday for a bit. The Force is so cool, I can't believe I can use it! This is awesome, even though I'd like it fixed as soon as possible. Until then, I guess I'm keeping Ketros's life warm for her, right?"

Zinnia hadn't answered, and was instead giving a concerned frown.

"That… might be a problem. You've inherited Ketros's Force sensitivity. Except you don't know how to use it. And you don't know how to resist the dark side. Look, just to be safe, I'm slapping a ban on you. No touching the Force unless you're completely calm. And even then, you think about it. You think about it good, alright? Seriously, if you fall, I'm killing you myself."

"I think you would be extremely capable of killing me. No dark side. Gotcha. So, I suppose I should go meditate on things, right? Oh, wait! When I was meditating yesterday, I heard this voice, super familiar, but I don't know who. She was talking like she was trying to get through to me or something? It was weird."

Zinnia perked up at that, the sprawl of deep thought shifting to an attentive listening position.

"Shit, that might have been Ketros! If she's still got the Force with her, she's probably trying to get through to you to fix everything!"

"Yeah, she said she was trying to work something out, and that I was in the better situation than her. She also told me not to do anything stupid."

Zinnia gave a relieved laugh, flopping back down to lay on the grass.

"Yeah, that's something she'd say, the idiot. She's probably just pissed 'cause your universe is still low-tech. She's always loved flying, she'll be so annoyed that she can't get to space. Listen, you go meditate, try and get in touch with her again. And don't tell anyone else about this, let's stick to the amnesia story unless we absolutely have to. Also, don't try to lie to me about this stuff again, I'm literally the best lie detector in the Order, I can call your bullshit whenever. Now come on, I'll walk you home, alright?"

"Yeah, sounds good. Also, thank you for not stabbing me earlier. I appreciate that."

Zinnia laughed, and stood up, offering Michelle a hand up, which she gratefully took.

"Come on. Let's get you home."

As they walked home, Michelle thought over their conversation. So Zinnia could pick up on any lies she tried. But apparently she couldn't sense plain old omission, as Michelle had left out a certain detail. Namely, the facts that she already knew about the universe she had landed in.

She wasn't sure how much she was willing to trust Zinnia at this point. Michelle's knowledge of the Star Wars 'verse was staying safe with her.

* * *

After dinner that evening, she sat down to meditate again. In her mindscape, the grey floor was still there, along with the shining lights all around. She sat there for a while, before realising that the voice wasn't showing up today, and that progress on that front wasn't going to happen at this time. So, instead she followed Zinnia's other instructions, and went into her memories of the crash, trying to figure out what had really happened.

There was a sense of foreboding in her gut as she went into the memories, but she pushed it aside, focusing on the blackout. There had to be something between that and her waking up…

There.

There was the distinct feeling of more memories, and she pushed into them. Her mind was resistant, but after a bit of mental manhandling, her brain conceded, and the memory started to be accessed. Again, there was that feeling of something being wrong, and then-

 _pain pain pain oh god it hurt so much why was this happening-_

 _help there help had arrived it was okay she was going to be okay-_

 _betrayal abandoned NO DON'T LEAVE ME TO-_

With a cry of fear, she came out of the meditation, the weak fragments of the memory shattering like glass. It had only been feelings, but… well. It was enough for her to realize two things.

She hadn't been pulled out of her universe in the moment of the crash.

And Zinnia had guessed right about trauma blocking the rest of the memories.

Well.

Shit.

* * *

Her other attempts at meditation throughout the week ended with similar levels of failure, and she was never able to get further than the emotions. Once, she'd gotten a flash of an image of someone walking away, but it had lasted less than half a second, and the overwhelming emotions from it had been enough to make her gag, and put meditation out of her reach for the rest of the day.

Coltin hadn't said anything, but he was giving her worried looks, and dropping hints about how her recovery would go better with more sleep.

Maybe it would be better if she took a break. She was busy now, with two classes she was allowed to attend again (Literature and History, although she was mostly playing catch up for both), and the rest being taught to her from scratch by Coltin. In between the avalanche of academics, she was being brought back to form in lightsaber skills, with Seha and Coltin alternating on teaching her. Coltin was more patient with her, but Seha worked faster, and while the workouts were brutal, she did walk away with noticeable improvements every time. But, as they both explained, her body knew what to do, it was just her mind that needed to catch up.

Honestly, she had been run so busy, she hadn't had time to meet with Zinnia and tell her of her meditation difficulties. Wasn't sure if she wanted to.

Frankly, Michelle wasn't sure at all about Zinnia. Which, is probably the natural conclusion to draw after someone goes at you with a fucking lightsaber. Not that Zinnia hadn't been somewhat justified, as if Michelle had somehow been in that situation, she would have been running for the hills screaming about pod people.

Finally, on Saturday, Coltin sat Michelle down for a talk. She was wincing internally going into it, already knowing that this was going to be a goddamn 'we're worried about you' speech from a parent figure. Fuck knows she had enough of that back in her own world.

"Padawan, what have you been doing?" Coltin demanded, giving her a serious look. Michelle resisted the urge to wince.

"What do you mean? I've been going between schoolwork and lightsaber-"

"No Michelle. Between those things, what have you been doing? You're stressed and upset, and I'm not going to let that go unnoticed. Come on kiddo. Spill."

Michelle gave a long sigh, in order to cover up the fact that she was frantically thinking of a plausible excuse.

"I… um, I've been meditating. To try and like… force my memories back. Hah, forcing them back with the Force. I'm funny."

Coltin clearly didn't agree with her assessment of her humor abilities, instead giving her a look of wide eyed shock.

"What the hell do you mean you've been trying to force them back!? By yourself? That's incredibly dangerous, why would you- How- Oh, padawan, why would you do that to yourself? That's terrible!"

Coltin immediately launched into a lecture about just what the repercussions of trying to do that were, but Michelle tuned him out. So. Forcing the memories of the crash was a terrible idea.

Well, Michelle could have guessed at that.

After the conversation, she gave up on trying to force the memories, and went back to normal meditation. No poking at things she shouldn't have been poking at. Which, meant that she got a better sleep schedule, and in general felt better.

And it also meant that the voice came back.

' _You. Oh my god. You absolute fucker. I tell you not to do anything stupid, turn around for five damn minutes, and you do the stupidest possible thing. Can't get a fucking connection- okay, y'know what, no. This is taking too much out of me, can't hold it up long enough. We'll talk in more detail later. Tell Zinnia I said hi.'_ The voice snapped during one of Michelle's normal meditation sessions, sounding annoyed, but faint, like a bad radio signal.

"Wait! Are you Padawan Ketros?" Michelle had demanded, hoping that she hadn't gone.

' _Fucking… obviously."_

"Are you in my dimension? Because that's the theory me and Zinnia have-"

' _Ah… yes and no. We'll talk about your home dimension later, that's a face to face topic, okay? And if people could stop fucking interrupting us, we can get some real work done on this. Don't worry about it for now, you just hold on to my body for me. …Wow that was gay. Hey, would that be incest or masturbation?'_

"…Dude I have wondered that so many times."

' _It's almost like we're the same person. Shocking. Anyways, questions we're not gonna be following up on aside, I seriously need to go, it is so hard to talk to you. See you… whenever I can manage it. And stay out of trouble!"_

So that had been a fun conversation.

She had finally gotten Zinnia alone the day after, and told her about contacting Ketros. Honestly, the other girls eyes had gotten hilariously wide.

"Holy shit, the multiverse thing was right? I was just repeating some random bullshit I heard Ketros say once. Dude. That is cool. Also, shit, can't believe my advice almost fucked up. Fucked us hard. Coulda been bad, is what I'm saying. Keep me updated, alright?"

The conversation had ended then, as another girl had joined them at the table in the commissary. Another girl who looked weirdly similar to Zinna.

Before Michelle could say something, Zinnia greeted the other girl with a friendly shoulder punch.

"Sup man! When did you get back?"

"Ugh, this morning at like, two AM. Just woke up. Sup Michelle? Heard about your amnesia, that's rough man." The other girl said, in the slight drawl of someone who was still somewhat asleep.

"Um, thanks. Who are you?"

Zinnia snorted.

"Michelle, this is our crechemate, Neria. Oh, also my twin, but that's like… not that important. Just means we share our smoking good looks."

"Please. I wear it better."

"Now see here."

The rest of the meal was passed with casual banter between the twins, with Michelle chipping in occasionally. It was… nice. Having friends was nice.

Even if they technically weren't hers.

* * *

 **AN: Whew. And there's chapter 4!**

 **Okay so are you all getting sick of OC's? Because I'm getting sick of OC's. I can definitely confirm that the canon characters are coming, and in chapter 6. They'll be used to ground the story's time setting, although Michelle's managed to get a vague handle on it.**

 **Also, that stuff between Michelle and Ketros? Remember that. That's gonna be important in a while.**


	5. Part 1, Chapter 5: Breathing In

**AN: Hello again! Bit of a timeskip for this one, we've bounced ahead two months from the ending of the last chapter. Note that this is not the last time skip we're going to use, as there's going to be a lot of months/years where nothing interesting happens, Michelle just painstakingly learns the entire Jedi curriculum from scratch. And that would get really old really fast. So we're skipping the bullshit and sticking to plot.**

 **Also, sorry if anything seems a bit awkward. The first thousand odd words of this chapter were really fighting me.**

* * *

Part 1, Chapter 5: Breathing In

There were several ways Michelle expected to wake up in the morning. To her alarm going off, to Coltin knocking on the door and telling her breakfast was ready, and occasionally on her own for various reasons. During the two months she had spent the temple, mornings had turned out to be rather relaxed affairs, the Jedi clearly believing in calm, sedate mornings.

She did not expect to be woken up by all four of her friends crowding into her bedroom and screaming happy birthday.

Needless to say she woke up very suddenly.

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF BED, YOU'RE AN ADULT NOW! WE'RE GETTING HOOKERS!" Zinnia shrieked cheerfully after Michelle had woken up with a yelp of shock.

"We are not getting hookers." Neria said firmly, rolling her eyes. "It would blow Isaac's tiny brain."

"It's true! I'm not old enough to handle breasts! In fact, being in a room full of mostly girls is almost enough to send me into seizures of horror!"

"It's way too early to be that sarcastic Isaac. Also, the fuck do you mean I'm an adult?" Michelle snapped, valiantly attempting to get untangled from her blankets.

"She means you're sixteen, and that's the standard for adulthood in a lot of places. Although core legal is eighteen, so no bars yet." Seha said, giving a stern look in Zinnia's direction. She rolled her eyes and scoffed.

"You mean no bars if you're a pussy. Chelle, wanna go sneak into a bar? Isaac's not invited cause he's too young for boobs, and definitely too young for booze, and Seha's not invited because she's a lame nerd. Neria, you can come too if you're not too busy-"

"I've got an early class tomorrow, I'm not staying out late for your shenanigans. No offense."

"Somehow, my heart will go on. So, Michelle and Zinnia go to a bar?" Zinnia asked, grinning hopefully. Michelle rolled her eyes.

"No, now Michelle kicks her friends out and puts some goddamn pants on. Out. All of you! Banished!"

Obligingly, the four wandered out of her room, door closing behind them. Michelle flopped back onto the bed, and gave a very long sigh, before sitting up, and grabbing her commlink off the table, checking the time.

It was eleven in the morning.

Okay, so her earlier comment about being too early was off a little.

It was nice of them to let her sleep in on her birthday, although she was somewhat questioning their wake-up methods. And Zinnia had better not have been serious about that bar thing.

* * *

After Michelle had thrown some damn clothes on, her friends had dragged her out of the Temple, and into Couruscant as a whole. Which, was actually pretty fucking awesome, as she hadn't been out of the temple before.

Neria was flying, due to the fact that she was apparently training to become a pilot of the order, and was the best flyer. Seha got the passenger seat, on account of Isaac attempting to claim it, and being physically removed by Seha and made to sit in the backseat, due to Neria refusing to drive with someone so young in the passenger seat. So, the backseat contained Michelle, Zinnia, and a sulking Isaac.

They had gone to some nearby botanical gardens, as apparently Ketros had adored them. It had been Zinnia's idea, and on the one hand, Michelle was mildly offended by the fact that Zinnia was just assuming she'd share all her interests with Ketros, but on the other hand, Michelle was definitely a plant person. So the guess was right, although Michelle was still slightly irritated just on principle.

Also, space plants were _awesome_. Even though it was slightly depressing not to actually be able to identify any of them.

After that, they'd dragged Michelle to a restaurant for dinner. There was the slight hitch of her not knowing what most of the menu was, but Zinnia was able to subtly point her in the direction of a good burger, so everything was okay.

Once dinner was over, Seha, Neria and Isaac went back to the temple, with the excuse that Neria had an early class, Seha didn't want to deal with Michelle and Zinnia after dark, and nobody trusted the two of them to look after Isaac. Which was probably for the best, as they totally couldn't. The three of them took the speeder back to the temple, due to the fact that Michelle and Zinnia could just get a cab.

"Don't get into too much trouble at the bars!" Isaac yelled out the window as they drove away, earning middle fingers from the pair.

There was a moment while Michelle and Zinnia watched their friends fly away, before Michelle spoke up.

"So… uh… we're not actually going to a bar, are we? Because I don't drink. Not planning on starting. Er, ever." She said awkwardly, giving an apologetic shrug afterwards. Zinnia blinked in shock, giving Michelle a strange look.

"Seriously? You used to- er, sorry, Ketros had no problem with the stuff, she was just holding out until her sixteenth to avoid any unnecessary liver damage, or underage alcohol poisoning. Honestly, are you sure you don't-"

"Well, I don't expect Ketros to have my specific reasons, now drop it, okay!? Sorry! I just… really don't like alcohol. Can we do something else?"

Zinnia gave Michelle a slightly alarmed look for the outburst, before shrugging.

"Alright, alright. It's your birthday, we're not gonna do anything you don't wanna do. How about this. I know a pretty great spot not far from here, nice and secluded, we can stargaze. You down for that?"

Michelle gave a flat stare in response, looking up at the light pollution blocking out any hint of night sky, before raising an eyebrow in silent disbelief.

"Okay, I can hear you silently calling bullshit, and that hurts man. Cuts me deep. But nah, I don't mean literal stars in this case, I mean that it's nice to just lie down somewhere and watch the lights from traffic above. As cheesy as that sounds." Zinnia suggested, rubbing her neck with a slight embarrassed flush.

Michelle gave a hesitant smile in response.

"Yeah, that… that sounds nice."

"Really? Sweet! Come on, follow me!"

As it turned out, Zinnia's definition of 'not far from here' was a lot looser than Michelle's would have been.

In her personal opinion, if it took Force powered parkour to reach an area, it was _not_ nearby. But jumping around on buildings was fun as hell, so she wasn't complaining. Also, there was something inherently hilarious about either scaring the shit out of pedestrians, or completely dazzling them. Fun times.

After a few minutes, there were no more pedestrians, and Michelle got the distinct feeling that what they were doing wasn't strictly legal.

"Hey, are we allowed to be here? Because I can't help but notice that there's nobody around anymore."

"Well, if anyone asks we didn't know, but yes, this might be trespassing. Little bit. Dude, we're Jedi, nobody's gonna arrest us." Zinnia said, waving her hand in a dismissive gesture, before using the Force to leap onto a catwalk, her landing causing a slight clang.

"Come on, just up here." Zinnia called, sticking her head over the edge to look down at Michelle. She sighed, cracked her neck, and used the Force to jump up, landing with a stumble, and being steadied by Zinnia.

"Wow, smooth." She said, grinning. Michelle quickly got her footing again, and punched Zinnia on the shoulder. The two jostled back and forth for a minute, before Zinnia broke off to flop down on the catwalk, legs sticking out under the railing and hanging off into the abyss. After a moment looking down at the drop, Michelle shrugged and joined her, mimicking her position.

The two lay in a peaceful silence for a while, watching the lights of the speeders overhead. From their slightly isolated position, the sounds of the city were muffled, a distant backdrop to the scene that was made up of just the two of them.

After a long amount of time, Zinnia spoke up.

"So… you've been here a little over two months now, huh?" She said quietly, not moving her gaze from the sky.

"Yeah. It's still sinking in, that I'm really here."

"Well… I don't know if this counts for anything, but… I'm glad you're here." Zinnia said, eyes still firmly fixed up on the traffic above. Looking over at her, Michelle noticed a slight flush in the low light.

"I'm glad I'm here too." Michelle replied, suddenly feeling that her words had more weight to them than she had expected.

Zinnia's hand brushed against hers, and stayed there for a moment, a silent question. Michelle responded by grabbing a hold of hers, until the two were lying in silence, hand in hand.

"Y'know, Jedi aren't supposed to have attachments." Zinnia said with amusement, although there was a hint of apprehension threaded underneath the words, turning her head to look at Michelle.

"Well… I'm technically not a Jedi?" Michelle suggested hesitantly, also looking at her.

Slowly, Zinnia moved in, Michelle matching her, both going in for a kiss-

Michelle's comm went off suddenly, prompting both of them to drop the others hands and scramble to their feet, seperating in surprise. There was a pause, before Zinnia smacked her palm against her forehead.

"Why did we jump apart, we're the only ones here, it's a fucking comm ringing." She seethed, obviously annoyed with herself at the automatic response they both had had.

"Ugh, shit, it's Coltin. Do you think he did it on purpose? Like, he just… knew? Is that a thing Jedi can do?"

"I have no idea. Better answer it just in case." Zinnia muttered, turning around on the catwalk and leaning against a railing in a vain attempt to hide her massive flush.

"Hello?" Michelle asked, picking up the call.

" _Padawan! Hey! Not getting into trouble, are you?"_

"...No?"

" _Good enough for me. Listen, whatever you're up to, you need to cut it out and head back. Work time. Guess who's been cleared for active duty again! We've got a mission, we leave tomorrow. Kinda early too. …Actually, wow, really early. Need you back here to sleep and pack. We'll be working with another master-padawan team, but nobody's told me who yet. It'll be a surprise. Those are fun. Anyways, get home now, okay?"_

"Alright, alright…"

" _Sweet. Sorry about killing your birthday celebrations, whatever it is you're doing. If it's breaking rules, which it probably is, don't tell me, okay?"_

"Okay. I'll get a cab back now."

" _Awesome. Later kiddo."_

The call ended, and Michelle pocketed her comm again, looking awkwardly over at Zinnia.

"So, your first mission tomorrow? Should be fun. Come on, let's get back to the temple." The other padawan said firmly, getting up and leaving the catwalk, jumping back down to the public area they had come from.

Michelle lingered on the catwalk for a moment, wondering where the two of them would have gone if they hadn't been interrupted. Then, she sighed, mentally wrote the moment between the two of them off as having been thoroughly ruined, and followed Zinnia to get a cab, pushing the thought out of her mind.

It was probably for the best. Distractions would be a bad idea on a mission, especially Michelle's first one.

Although at some point she would have to get some sort of unholy retribution for Coltin effectively cockblocking her.

* * *

The next morning, a yawning Michelle was blinking out in the Couruscant dawn, a duffle bag slung over her shoulder. Somehow, even at this ungodly hour the morning, the traffic in the skies was at the same volume. Michelle silently hated everyone who was awake that early.

"Come on kiddo, the ships this way." Coltin said, gently directing Michelle towards a starship. There was a faint aura of condescension to his words, and honestly he was lucky Michelle was too tired to be offended by that.

"So, we're just waiting on the other team, who nobody has told me the names of."

"Fuckin' rude." Michelle mumbled, earning a snort from the older Jedi.

"Language. Anyways, it's a three day flight to get there, and the ship has two rooms, so you get to bunk with the other padawan, and I'm stuck sharing with the other knight. Should be fun. You can go get some more sleep, I'll tell the other padawan not to bother you. When they _show up_."

"Mmm. Okay. Night. Or, morning. I don't know."

Coltin laughed again, and ruffled her hair, pushing her towards the bedroom.

"Night kiddo."

The cabin was small, but had two bunk beds. She thought about it for a moment, and promptly claimed the top bunk. She was the cool kid here. Yeah.

The ship had also appeared to only have one bathroom, which Michelle was trying not to think about. If she thought about that too hard, she was going to have war flashbacks to her first home, where it was her, her parents and her older brother in a house with two bedrooms and one bathroom. That had not been a fun living situation.

But it was just for three days, and it was a ship of four Jedi. There probably wouldn't be any screaming matches over bathroom rights.

Grim bathroom musings aside, Michelle settled into the top bunk, duffel bag tossed to the side, and pulled up the blanket, attempting to sleep.

It took about ten minutes to realise that no, sleep was not coming by today. Sleep was being a bitch.

Which was okay. Michelle was flexible. In many senses of the word.

She could settle for just meditating.

It was always hard to follow the passage of time while meditating, and that held true today. At some point, another two lights were close enough to be on the ship. The other master and padawan team, she assumed.

One of the lights was especially bright, near blinding. The other was much more subtle, muted, yet there was a clear complexity to it just under the surface. It was like looking at a nebula beside a supernova, both incredible in their own ways, one of them was just a lot more fucking bright than the other.

In some, distant awareness, she could tell the ship was taking off, and breaking the atmosphere. Michelle chose to stay in meditation, due to the fact that holy shit, she was in space, and if she came out of it right now, she would probably either giggle in joy or scream in terror of the void. Either could happen. Both would be fairly embarrassing, and she was not going to roll the dice for no damn reason-

Suddenly, the Force shifted and warped, like she was in a car that had been driving, and suddenly spun the fuck out.

Possibly a bad metaphor, all things considering. But frankly, she could joke about her own traumas, thank you very much.

The change in the force was too disorienting for her, and she pulled herself out of the meditation, shaking her head slightly to clear her mind.

"Oh, hey, you're up! We just jumped to hyperspace, dunno if you felt that, I didn't want to disturb you, cause apparently you were tired, but you weren't sleeping? I don't know if sleep and meditation are really that interchangeable, but hey, who am I to judge, right?" The other padawan said cheerfully, sticking his head up over the side of the top bunk, a bright smile on his face. Michelle stared for a moment, before catching herself, forcing a smile that she hoped was convincing. Because holy fuck, this was both exactly what she had been hoping for, and also the one thing that she had _not planned for in the slightest._

"Yeah, that's fair. I'm Michelle Ketros, I'm sixteen. You?"

"I'm Anakin Skywalker, I'm thirteen. Nice to meet you!"

* * *

 **AN: Aaand we have our temporal location.**

 **Also, points to anyone who called Michelle and Zinnia being a thing. Cause they're gonna be a thing.**

 **Not right now though, because someone had to go and fuck up their last interaction in part 1.** _ **Coltin.**_

 **Anyways, so the rest of part 1 is occupied by the mission, so settle yourselves in, because now we get us some real canon characters!**


	6. Part 1, Chapter 6: Breaking In

**AN: Hello again! Happy thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadians! Did you all enjoy your food coma's? Because I sure did! And family visiting gave me an excellent reason to lock myself in my room and write. Yes grandma, I've got lots of homework to do, and definitely not work on self-indulgent fanfiction. That would be ridiculous. Ha ha. Ha.**

 **Hey, so y'know how I've mentioned the character creator I use doesn't have a male template? THEY MADE A MALE TEMPLATE. So now I have finally visualised my guys as well as my girls. Images are on my blog, same tag as always, you know the details. For those of you that don't care enough to follow the link and are still slightly confused about Coltin's appearance, while fiddling around with the character thing, I realised something.**

 **Coltin basically looks like a younger Qui-Gon with shorter hair and no facial hair.**

 **I'm actually not kidding here, I was messing around with what design to give him during the Clone Wars, and just for funsies was like "hey maybe I'll have him grow a beard. Ooh, wonder what the long hair would look like on him- holy shit". So that was pretty informative.**

 **Also, for anyone who hasn't swung by my Tumblr: You might actually want to, as there is currently the rough draft of a scene from part 3 up. It introduces the battalion Michelle works with during the Clone Wars, as well as her commander. As well as having what is, in my personal opinion, the best damn joke this story will ever churn out. You know the drill, Gay-Blue-Space-Rock, hashtag holy shit it's my writing.**

 **Also fun fact. Stage one of working on a chapter/story/whatever usually involves me pacing around my room while listening to music. How intense that music is effects the pacing. And I am not a coordinated person after 3 AM. Basically what I'm saying is, I bashed my knee against my bed while pacing to Fall Out Boy, and said knee is massively bruised. I shit you not, it's literally black in some parts. And there's a little scrape but ohh my god the bruising.**

 **So this chapter literally took my blood. Enjoy everybody!**

* * *

Part 1, Chapter 6: Breaking In

"So, you're a senior padawan, right? Or just about one? Man, what kind of stuff do older padawans get to learn about? Can you tell me some of it? I've never worked with an older padawan before, this is gonna be so wizard!" Anakin rambled cheerfully.

"Yeah, should be fun." Michelle replied, pretending to be someone that wasn't having an intense internal debate.

Because really, how the hell was she supposed to respond to this?

Sure, she had been ready to deal with Anakin Skywalker. But not tiny, adorable thirteen year old Anakin Skywalker. All bright and cheerful and not a crazy self-destructive murder machine.

You know what, fuck it. She was going to make friends with the future murder machine. And hopefully prevent him from ever becoming a murder machine.

Or place herself at the top of the murder machine's kill list. Either way, it would be fun.

"Well, I'm looking forwards to the mission too. Should be fun! Maybe we can work together at some point, ditch the masters and do our own thing." Michelle said, grinning a bit. Anakin beamed in return.

God damn, he was a cute kid.

"So, I think there's a storage room that should be mostly empty. Wanna go spar or something? All I've really got for opponents is Master Obi-Wan and like, three other kids in my lightsaber class. Not a lot of people want to fight with me, something about a 'terrifying battle grin' and 'fighting dirty'."

"Oh, yeah, I have that problem too. My opinion is the Temple is infested with people who are total wimps. Y'know?"

"Yeah! Like, it's a fight. I'm not just going to use my lightsaber, that's stupid and you're gonna die. I'm going to punch them in the face. Or kick them in the dick. Or something along those lines."

Michelle snickered in approval.

"Nice, nice. I like to go for the throat, a good punch at the right angle and they are _down._ Or hit them in the face. Like, not a punch, but an open hand? Kinda drive the heel of my palm into their nose? Hurts less for me, hurts more for them. Win-win."

Anakin was staring at her with the look of someone who had just discovered god was real and standing in front of them.

"Uh… you okay Anakin?"

"You're _cool_!" The kid said, sounding awed.

"Dude, I am the coolest of cool. I'm so cool, I think Hoth is warm."

"...The hell is Hoth?"

Michelle blinked for a moment, then remembered that oh yeah, if the Rebels were using Hoth as a base, it probably wasn't a very well-known planet. And honestly, why would it be? Icy hell-hole. And outside of the context of the rebel base, there really wasn't anything special about it. Star Wars references actually made less sense in the Star Wars universe sometimes. Go figure.

"Ice planet, don't worry about it. Anyways, so what sort of stuff do you like? For someone that hates math, I'm weirdly interested in temporal physics and the multiverse theory and all. And one of my friends is big on mechanics, and I've learned some stuff about that just in self-preservation. Also, my friend Seha? She's super obsessed with becoming a combat master, I've learned so damn much about lightsaber fighting. Did you know you can rig your lightsaber to function basically as a grenade if you need to? Because I know how to do that. I wish I didn't, but I do."

"Cool! Can you teach me how to do that!?"

"Absolutely not." A man said firmly, standing in the doorway of the room.

It took a minute for Michelle to place who the man was. The voice was vaguely familiar, but the hairstyle wasn't really anything she had been expecting. It was short, and neatly trimmed, certainly not a padawan cut, but not a goddamn mullet. Not to mention the beard was gone. Or just not grown yet? In all fairness though, he had like, another six years to grow one.

"Aw, but Master! It would be so cool!" Anakin whined, giving Obi-Wan a pleading look.

"I'm standing by the rules we have already made on this subject. No explosives until you're fifteen, or unless I'm dead and don't have to deal with the inevitable mayhem. Don't deny it, we both know you're going to use explosives to raise hell."

"I would use explosives to raise hell!" Michelle chirped up, grinning a bit, and frantically attempting to stomp down on her automatic fangirl reaction. Because really, it was one thing to meet Anakin fucking Skywalker, human disaster extraordinaire. It was an entirely different thing to meet Obi-Wan fucking Kenobi, the most badass Jedi ever to exist. He was a man that was not to be fucked with. And sure, that was just Michelle's personal opinion. But when a padawan manages to kill a fucking Sith while alone, disarmed and freaking out, that makes them a fucking badass. In Michelle's opinion.

She was a bit of a fangirl.

Okay fuck it she was a massive fangirl.

Thank _god_ Princess Leia wasn't running around. Michelle's gay heart would never recover from meeting her.

...Oh shit, but Padme Amidala was still running around saving the galaxy. That was worse. That was so much worse. If Michelle met her, she was going to swoon. On the spot. It would probably be embarrassing, and end with Anakin trying to fight her, but damn it the heart wants what the heart wants.

"...Padawan Ketros? Are you alright?" Obi-Wan asked, an eyebrow raised in mild concern. Michelle realised that she had been so busy focusing on her fangirling and gayness, she hadn't noticed that the other two people in the room had continued talking. God damn it.

"Uh, yeah, fine. Just zoned out a bit. Thinking about explosions, you know how it is."

"I think for everyone's safety, we'd best move this conversation to a different topic. Er, Padawan Ketros, your master's in the cockpit, and would wish to see you."

Michelle knew a dismissal when she saw one. Ouch.

"Alright, thanks. But, um, I don't know why but being called Padawan Ketros makes me twitchy, just Michelle is fine."

"Alright Michelle." Obi-Wan said, a slightly bemused tone to his voice. Michelle promptly fucked off.

In the cramped hallway of the ship, Michelle took a moment.

Because holy fucking shit, she had just met Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. How was this her life. How.

And dear lord, Obi-Wan Kenobi. If she wasn't both gay and underage, she would be valiantly attempting to climb that man like a fucking tree. Probably for the best that both factors were in place, so she couldn't embarrass herself too badly. Hashtag human disaster and all that.

But on the more serious note, now she knew where she was. _When_ she was. Admittedly, she had figured out it wasn't the clone wars yet about a month ago, but now she knew she had about six years. Which was good. Because fuck, did she need those six years to prepare.

And she was older than Anakin. That was something she could work with.

At risk of being a manipulative bitch, she was really in the perfect position here to casually steer Anakin away from the whole 'Darth Vader' thing. She was older than him, so he would automatically look up to her, but she was close enough to his age that she didn't count as an authority figure, she was a cool older kid figure. So she could sway his opinions, with less risk of him turning against her.

...Dear _lord_ she sounded like Palpatine.

It was probably for the best not to end up like that prick. But then again, could manipulation be considered wrong if it was for the purpose of stopping a genocide? Michelle was pretty sure that was okay. And it wouldn't so much be manipulation, it would really be undoing someone elses manipulation. Like stealth therapy. Yeah.

It's not like it would be anything big. She could probably just start with casually pointing out that Chancellor Palpatine was sketchy as fuck, and shouldn't be trusted. And also getting that boy some friends, because really, Anakin Skywalker was a guy that needed some fucking friends.

Now that she was pretty sure she wasn't going to descend into megalomania or anything, she continued on her way, and into the cockpit.

Coltin was in there, sitting in what was probably the pilot's seat, although Michelle was fairly certain you weren't supposed to sit cross legged while flying the fucking ship. Not that he was flying the fucking ship, as they were in hyperspace, and the ship didn't need any piloting at that point.

"Oh, there you are. Hey, I sent Kenobi to get you with some bullshit excuse so we could talk alone. Uh, first things first, we're keeping your amnesia under wraps, unless you want to bring it up-"

"I don't, honestly."

"Then it's not getting brought up. Secondly, I totally just realised that you don't remember being in hyperspace before now, and are probably disoriented as hell right now. Right?"

Michelle nodded, pulling a face.

"Yeah, I was meditating when we went into hyperspace. Did not expect it. Threw me right out of the meditation."

"Mmm. That's understandable. Alright, take a seat, let's do this. So, first things first…"

* * *

The next three days passed in an interesting combination of incredibly interesting, and painfully boring. Because, on the one hand, Michelle was on a small ship with Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. And on the other hand, being on a small ship with two of her favourite characters (who were people now instead of characters) got really old really fast. And on the third, mutant hand, she was stuck in a very confined space for a long period of time. It was _painful_.

Needless to say, her and Anakin ended up going more than a few rounds in the storage room. She was pleasantly surprised to find that he was a good match for her in a spar, as she had the advantage of age, height and strength, while he had the advantage of several years of training, against Michelle's two months. Not to mention the little fucker was _fast_.

He was also surprisingly fun to hang out with. The first night on the ship, the two were wiped out from both their early morning, and the ship's time cycle altering to line up with the time of the planet they were headed to. As a result, they slept like rocks. Dead rocks. On the second night however, they somehow ended up trading stories of crazy shit they'd done. Admittedly, Michelle was either repeating stories that her friends had told her about what they'd done with Ketros, or just editing stories of what she'd done back in her universe so that they made sense in the setting. She considered this justified, as Anakin was doing the same damn thing, by phrasing stories from before he was a Padawan so that they could plausibly have happened at the Temple. Obviously, she didn't call him out on this, as it would make things extremely awkward, and she really didn't have an excuse for knowing those details about him.

Anyways, long story short the second night ended with Coltin coming in to make them both shut the hell up. Which somehow made it better. Because really, nothing defined friendship more than being so fucking loud an adult comes over to give a grumpy lecture.

The third night, they both actually slept. Mostly because they were going to land on Rellekka late that afternoon.

* * *

"So, our mission. Knight Ineaus Avaris was sent to Rellekka for a diplomatic mission, to oversee the planets debate on joining the republic. However, her reports stopped abruptly a week ago, and the local government claims she left on her own, with no explanation. Officially, our job is to pick up where she left off. Unofficially, we need to find out what really happened to Knight Avaris, as we believe the government is covering up her disappearance. Obi-Wan and I will be covering the negotiations, we need you two to sneak off as soon as possible and find Knight Avaris. Got it?" Coltin said, an hour before they were going to land.

Anakin nodded seriously, but Michelle raised an eyebrow.

"Um, yes, if we suspect the local government had a part in Avaris vanishing, and proven themselves willing to attack Jedi… is it the best idea for me an Anakin to be here? I'm just saying, it seems like a really volatile situation to throw two teenagers into and then ask them to run off on their own." She pointed out, looking skeptical.

"Your age is the reason you'll be safe. The people of Rellekka revere children, and consider harming them to be the greatest crime of all. It's unlikely anyone would dare to lay a hand on either of you." Obi-Wan said, giving a calming smile to both padawans. Michelle made a small 'oh' noise in response, and let the briefing continue.

"When we land, the four of us will be required to attend a formal dinner. After that, we can retire for the night. We think that would be the best time for you two to sneak off, and attempt to track down Knight Avaris." Obi-Wan continued, Coltin nodding in agreement with him.

"Yeah, we can handle that. Right Michelle?" Anakin asked, grinning at her.

"Hell yeah we can."

The two high fived. Coltin gave a good-natured eye roll, and Obi-Wan gained the look of someone who was having some doubts about letting the two work together. Which was unfortunate for him, as it was too late, and they were definitely going to.

And there was no possible way that Anakin 'Human Disaster' Skywalker working with Michelle The Inter-Dimensional Hobo was going to go wrong. Absolutely no problems on the horizon. Just smooth sailing for the two of them.

Yeah. They were probably going to find a way to blow up half the damn planet.

 **AN: I'm gonna be real here, I may or may not refer to the partnership of Michelle and Anakin as "Team Property Damage." Trust me, it suits them.**

 **Good lord the ending to this chapter was fighting me. Swear to god, since my outline's gone so badly off the rails, I meant to have them at least arrive on the damn planet. But nope. For anyone whose curious, the events of this chapter were supposed to be the latter half of chapter 7. But that's okay. I can wing it.**

 **See you Friday!**


	7. Part 1, Chapter 7: Shaping Up

**AN: Hey! Happy Friday! On a random note, I don't remember when, but at some point like a year ago, I came up with the planet Rellekka to use in a story that never got finished. Sometimes to name things, I'll just run a word through google translate until I like the sound of what I get. Now, I have no idea what Rellekka originally meant, and I'm pretty sure I've got the wrong spelling anyways, but I do remember that I think it's a Finnish word? So in honour of that, every native Rellekan will be named via a Finnish name generator. I fucking love name generators, I found a website that has hundreds of different kinds, fictional and real, and I am abusing the hell out of it.**

 **Also, fun fact! If the whole 'amnesia but really dimension hopping' thing hadn't happened, Coltin and Padawan Ketros would have taken this mission on their own. Anakin and Obi-Wan were added mostly because while Michelle and Anakin both hold the rank of Padawan, by Jedi standards they're both undertrained for the job, and both lack a Temple background, Anakin cause of the whole slave thing, and Michelle because of her 'amnesia'. The council is hoping they'll balance each other out.**

 **I may or may not have thought through what Ketros's life would have been if the whole dimension hopping thing hadn't gone down. Especially because, for all intents and purposes here, I'm acting as if Ketros was a canon character, who just had little to no effect in the grand scheme of things. Obviously, Michelle is in the position to play a much bigger role, and with the kind of knowledge she has, isn't going to be content to stick to the sidelines. She's got shit to do, Skywalkers to save, Chancellors to possibly stab in the face.**

 **And this chapter has a first! A scene that isn't narrated from Michelle's perspective! Because despite the third person narrative, its all still very clearly been Michelle's observations and thoughts on everything that's forming the narrative. We get to step outside that here. It's fun.**

 **Anyways, enough of my rambling. Enjoy!**

* * *

Part 1, Chapter 7: Shaping Up

The first thing Michelle noticed was that Rellekka was really fucking orange.

Well, the grass was green, and the sky was blue, but the planet appeared to be in the middle of fall, with orange, red and yellow leaves falling steadily from the trees, and a bit of a chill to the air.

Nice.

This planet was officially on Michelle's good list for scenery, as long as it didn't start fucking snowing. She might Canadian, but that didn't mean she _liked_ the frozen fuckfest that occupied half the damn year.

In front of her, Coltin and Obi-Wan didn't so much as twitch as the chilly air hit them, clearly projecting the standard Jedi serenity. Michelle did her best to ignore the cool breeze, and copy the knights, although she did draw her Jedi robes a little closer around her, glad for its warmth. Beside her, Anakin gave no fucks about Jedi serenity, and flat out shivered in the autumn air, pulling a face of annoyance.

" _Damn_ it's cold out here." He muttered, teeth gritted. Michelle shot him an amused look.

"Could be worse. At least it's not snowing."

At that, Anakin pulled a hilariously offended expression, and looked like he was about to elbow Michelle for even suggesting that. Fortunately, a well-placed _look_ from Obi-Wan put a stop to that, as their greeting party was approaching.

"Jedi masters! Thank you so much for coming. I am Jalo Lahtinen, Prime Minister of Rellekka. I hope you had a pleasant journey?"

"It was quite nice, thank you. We're eager to resume negotiations with your parliament, and to pick up where Knight Avaris left off." Obi-Wan said in a polite tone. Michelle suddenly remembered that this was the man who would one day be known as 'The Negotiator', and fuck did it ever show. With his relatively innocuous comment, Michelle felt distress and agitation spike amongst the Prime Minister and his delegates. She exchanged a look with Anakin, which was enough to make it clear that all four Jedi had felt it.

The Prime Minister definitely knew more than he was saying about Knight Avaris's disappearance.

The adults had continued talking, but Michelle was tuning them out, instead focusing on the Force signatures of the politicians, trying to sense something more specific than just general unease. They all knew more than they said they did… But who knew the most?

There.

On the far left of the group, a tall man with dark hair and pale skin. While he was agitated by the mention of Knight Avaris, it had quickly shifted into irritation. His body language was suspicious too, barely concealed annoyance with the whole situation. There was anger there as well, mostly directed at the Jedi. Needles to say, he didn't seem like a pleasant person.

Subtly, Michelle did the equivalent of poking Anakin through the Force, and gesturing towards the man. Anakin gave her a slightly confused look, and she gave a small shake of her head. They could talk about it later. What was important was that she'd pointed the suspicious man out to him.

Suddenly, everybody started walking, and Michelle stumbled slightly to catch up, quietly getting right beside Anakin.

"What's going on?" She muttered, feeling slightly lost.

"We're joining the Prime Minister for dinner. Why did you-"

"Not here. We'll talk about it in private."

And with that, Michelle moved over to the side slightly, so that she was walking directly behind Coltin, as Jedi protocol insisted was necessary for a padawan in a formal setting. And hadn't _that_ been some fun lessons. Goddamn etiquette.

The inside of the parliament was nice, in an ostentatious sort of way. Michelle mostly just felt cripplingly underdressed, even in her formal tunics. She fucking _hated_ fancy places. They always made her feel so damn out of place. Her parents had dragged her to a four star restaurant once. The food had not been worth it being the most painfully awkward night of her life.

…And this dinner was probably going to be worse. And her formal tunics were the traditional Jedi beige, meaning any spills would be instantly visible.

 _Fuck._

* * *

The dinner was not as horrible as Michelle had expected.

It was worse. It was so much worse.

The only real saving grace was that nobody was paying much in the way of attention to her, and Anakin seemed to be having a similar problem of crippling awkwardness.

Really, she should have seen this coming.

The movies and cartoons focused a hell of a lot on the fighting aspects of Jedi life, and didn't do much talking about their roles as diplomats. Namely, because the movies and shows were all set either while there were fucking wars going on, or there wasn't a formal Jedi Order left. But she wasn't in that time period right now. Michelle was in the hang time between the invasion of Naboo, and the beginning of the Clone Wars. There was not a galactic crises going on right now – or, at least not a violent one. Which meant the Jedi Order was operating as normal.

And the Jedi were primarily _diplomats_.

All in all, the life of a Jedi looked a hell of a lot more interesting in the movies. Attending a formal dinner as a mostly unimportant participant fucking sucked.

Judging by the looks Anakin kept stealthily trading with her, he agreed.

After what felt like a fucking eternity, the dinner was over, and the four Jedi were allowed to retire to their quarters. The one benefit of all the formal bullshit was that their rooms were very, very nice. And they each had their own separate room and bathroom, with a sitting room in the middle for all of them to meet in. This was a good thing, because no matter how well Michelle got along with Anakin, spending long periods of time without a space that was _hers_ and nobody else's was almost painful for her. She needed privacy damn it, and small star ships were not very conducive to that.

Yeah. She was going to up pacing until sunrise.

Ah well. Sleep was for the weak anyways.

"Alright, we'll go over everything we've noticed so far, and then you kids can sneak out to get to your own investigations. Alright?" Coltin said, settling down on one of the couches in the sitting room. Michelle mentally abandoned her hopes of getting some good pacing time, and sat down across from him, Anakin joining her on the couch, and Obi-Wan joining Coltin's.

"Well, first of all, when we first landed, everyone got anxious when you mentioned Knight Avaris, but that one guy on the end? Tall, pale, black hair? He was mostly irritated that she had been brought up at all. And he _really_ doesn't like us, did you see the looks he was giving us? Like we kicked his puppy or something, dude was not subtle. I pointed him out to you Anakin, didn't catch his name though. That's all I got, anyone else?" Michelle offered, looking around at the other three people in the room for input.

"That would have been Premier Tero Peltola. He's the head of the planets Nationalist party, and is the main figure pushing for the planet to remain outside of the republic. He holds a rather unfortunate amount of sway, for a man whose been repeatedly exposed as blatantly xenophobic. You believe he's behind the disappearance of Knight Avaris?" Obi-Wan said, fixing Michelle with an inscrutable look. She shrugged.

"I'm not calling anything at this point. I'm just saying, he seems suspicious to me, and that's where we should start looking. I'm open to other suggestions here."

"Yeah, I was getting the same thing off Premier Tero. He's going to be stuck here for negotiations, but he's got an estate out in the countryside. Nice and secluded. If he was going to be holding Jedi prisoner, that's where he'd do it. Might be a good place to start investigating?" Coltin chimed in, aiming the last sentence at the two padawans.

"Yeah, I was getting a bad feeling off of him. He's probably our guy, we just need to find evidence." Anakin said, a devious glint in his eyes. Obi-Wan frowned slightly.

"Don't jump to conclusions padawan. Keep an open mind on the matter." He said firmly, giving Anakin a stern look. The boy scowled, and rolled his eyes.

"Yes master." He muttered, clearly irritated.

Michelle frowned internally as she watched the by-play between them. Sure, it was just one exchange… but it might be hinting at a larger problem in their bond. One that could eventually lead to the existence of Vader.

Or maybe Michelle was just reading too much in to Anakin's fledgling teen angst. That was a possibility as well.

"Right. So, you kids should get changed out of your formal tunics, and then head out." Coltin ordered, clapping his hands together as he looked expectantly at the two. Michelle got up, with Anakin following her, and the two went into the rooms that had been declared theirs, leaving their masters alone on in the sitting room together.

* * *

"Are you sure it's the best idea to send them out alone?" Obi-Wan said quietly as soon as the two padawans had left the room. Beside him, Coltin sighed, looking uneasy.

"I don't know." He admitted, running a hand through his hair. "But do we have a choice? The kids, we can make excuses for. We'd both be missed too much. Face it Kenobi, we're the glorified distractions here."

"Yes, but Ana- the padawans don't fully realise the danger they're putting themselves in here. Whatever group we're up against, they were willing and able to attack a Jedi knight. How do we know that they won't harm the padawans? The taboo on hurting children may not extend to Jedi children."

Coltin gave the younger knight a look that was somewhere between amused and understanding.

"You're worried about Anakin." He said, knowing it was true. Obi-Wan flushed slightly, and looked to the side.

"My apprentice's wellbeing is my mandate-"

"Cut the crap Kenobi. You care about your apprentice, and you're worried sick that you might lose him. Right?"

Obi-Wan sighed, and slumped against the couch cushions.

"The code forbids attachments. But still… I think that- if anything happened to Anakin… well. I don't know if I could stand losing him." He admitted quietly, staring up at the ceiling.

Coltin put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"It's like that for everyone I think. Michelle's been my apprentice for four years now, and Force knows she hasn't made it easy, but I love that kid like she's my child. A few months ago, a mission went bad for us, and – well, I almost lost her. It was touch and go for a while, but while I was waiting for her to wake up, I realised that yeah. I'm attached to my apprentice. _Everyone_ gets attached to their apprentices. If they don't, then that's usually a sign that something's very, very wrong. And my own interpretation of the code on the matter is that attachments are what makes us people. And if we lose someone we're attached to? It's going to hurt like hell. But one day you'll get up, and you'll move past it. You won't let the grief consume you, but you won't deny it's there. That's what makes us Jedi. Y'know?"

There was a long silence, as Coltin's words hung in the air between them.

"You've… put a lot of thought into this, haven't you?"

"Michelle's the kind of apprentice that inspires a lot of philosophical musing. Part of her charm. Makes me want to rip my damn hair out sometimes, but she's a good kid. Anyways, but all of this is irrelevant, because our padawans are brilliant badasses, and they're going to be fine."

"And yet, I'm still worried."

"That's completely fair. This is the kid you've been basically raising for- how long?"

"…Four years."

There was a sudden, awkward pause, as Coltin remembered exactly _why_ Kenobi had taken Skywalker as a padawan, and mentally kicked himself for bringing the subject up, albeit indirectly.

"Right. Um… that's a bit young to start training a padawan, it's only fair that you're worried." He attempting, feeling so, so painfully awkward.

"Nobody else would." Kenobi said quietly. Coltin suddenly remembered that _oh yeah_ weren't there rumours that Jinn was going to take Skywalker as a padawan before his death? There were. Shit.

Coltin was really doing a fantastic job at shoving his foot firmly into his mouth like a goddamn idiot.

Thankfully, Michelle had the galaxy's most fantastic timing, and chose then to exit her room, now dressed in one of her warmer tunics, a dark blue one with long sleeves, and had what seemed to be an equally heavy purple undershirt that covered her neck, as well as warm looking leather gloves.

"Sure you're dressed warm enough padawan?" He joked, as she seemed to be preparing for winter instead of the autumn outside. She shrugged in response.

"I don't like the cold, sue me." The teenager said in a casual tone, although there was a self-conscious note underneath. Once again, Coltin had said the wrong thing.

Although, in all fairness, this one was not completely his fault. It was hard to know if you were actually offending someone when they were shielding themselves so intensely in the Force. Ever since Michelle had woken up with her memories gone, she had been keeping her mind heavily shielded, seemingly on pure instinct. It was to the point that even through their strong training bond, all Coltin could sense was that she was alive. No thoughts, no talking, no location, and not even any of her feelings came through anymore. The worst part was, she didn't even seem to notice she was doing it most of the time.

Coltin was brought out of his musing by Skywalker leaving his room, dressed for temperature in the same way as Michelle.

"Hey, ready to go?" She asked him, a cheerful grin on her face. Really, it was almost scary how fast Michelle had befriended the kid, especially considering her previous anti-social leanings.

"Yup! Let's go! If there's nothing else…?"

"No, no, go ahead. Just remember, be safe, and don't get caught. Stealth is your friend." Coltin warned, giving them both looks to ensure the message sunk in.

"Be careful, both of you. Look after each other, and work together." Kenobi said firmly, giving Skywalker a look that said 'take care of yourself or else', and then giving Michelle a look that said 'protect him or I fucking end you'. Judging by Michelle's small twitch, the message was received perfectly on her end, while Skywalker was oblivious to their exchange. Ah well. If something really did happen to Skywalker, Coltin would stop Kenobi from murdering Michelle too much.

"And remember, stay in comm contact. Give us an update before dawn, alright?" He called, allowing some of the worry he was feeling to colour his words.

Michelle gave a fond eye roll, clearly of the opinion that Coltin was worrying too much.

"Yeah, yeah. Bye Master!"

And with that, both padawans left.

The door closing behind them felt nearly ominous for some reason. Coltin tried not to think about that, and instead focused on the mostly blocked off bond between him and Michelle.

She was still alive. At least he knew that much.

* * *

 **AN: Oh my god I wrote this all in one sitting it's like five AM fucking kill me.**


	8. Part 1, Chapter 8: Checking Out

**AN: Oh my god, you would not believe the snow storm that hit me last Friday. Have mentioned I'm Canadian? Because I am. And god damn. I mean really 15 centimetres of snow in one day in OCTOBER is a bit much, even for me.**

 **Anyways, enjoy!**

* * *

Part 1, Chapter 8: Checking Out

"It's way too damn cold out here." Anakin muttered, half-heartedly trying to pull his tunic around him more. Michelle shrugged.

"Honestly, I've been running around in worse with less." She replied, hiding a wince as a chilly breeze picked up suddenly.

The main problem of running around outside for a stealth mission is that they were running around at night in fall. Which meant that, no matter how tolerable the temperature during the day was, it was _fucking cold_ during the night.

Honestly. And Coltin had thought it was funny that she went for her winter tunics and gloves.

"Okay, so. We need to be going… that way. For like… good lord, fifteen kilometers out of the city. Anakin, I think it's leg day."

"Counter. We… borrow a speeder, get there in five minutes. I'm down to skip leg day if you are." He suggested, grinning slyly. Michelle blinked.

"You can hotwire a speeder?"

"What, like it's hard?"

There was a pause, as she stared at him in awe.

"Dude, that's badass."

"I know, right? So, I think we can just pick out a ride from a government garage-"

"No, no, wait. Bad idea. …Ugh, I hate myself for saying this, but we need to walk. Ew, I know, but these guys are politicians. Not complete idiots. If a speeder goes missing at the same time as us, they're probably going to put two and two together. Better to just walk, they can't track that." Michelle sighed, visibly annoyed at the thought. Anakin pulled a face.

"Gross. Alright, better get going."

And with that, the two walked on through the night.

It sucked.

About an hour and a half later, they arrived on the grounds of Premier Tero's estate. Both Jedi quickly concealed themselves by way of climbing up a tree that still had most of its leaves. Sharing a larger branch, the two examined the patrols of guards going around.

"I'm gonna be real here, that is a suspicious amount of guards. Dude's hiding something." Michelle said quietly, eyes narrowed. Anakin nodded.

"Wanna break in?"

She gave a quiet huff of laughter.

"You know me too well. Let's break the fuck in."

They waited in the tree for a gap in the patrols, and then dropped silently to the ground, sprinting across the lawn with Force-enhanced speed, quickly hiding themselves behind a bush before the next patrol rounded the corner. Then, behind the bush, they soundlessly high fived.

They were _so cool_.

"In the window?" Anakin whispered, gesturing to the window above them. Michelle nodded.

Thankfully, someone had been stupid enough to leave said window open, and it was an easy task for Michelle to boost Anakin up, and then climb in after him.

Getting inside revealed that the window was open due to the room in question being freshly painted. Which Michelle found odd, as it was one ugly fucking paint job. Really, that shade of green? Really?

Outside of the painted room, the décor was elegant, although it toed the line of gaudy in Michelle's amateur opinion.

They moved more carefully inside the house, not wanting to be ambushed by more guards. Fortunately, the inside of the building seemed to be deserted, a fact that just made Michelle more nervous. Matters were not helped by the fact that the Force was giving off a faint sense of danger, which took the form of a buzzing of paranoia in the back of her mind. That, or her anxiety was acting up again. It could go either way, really.

Outside of inducing paranoia, the Force was actually pretty useful. Despite having no fucking cue about the layout of the building, Michelle and Anakin both headed in the same direction without saying a word, sensing that whatever it was they were looking for, it was in the direction they were going.

They had to dodge two different patrols of guards, but eventually they made it up a large staircase, and into what seemed to be an office.

"Ooh. This probably has something good. Or at least incriminating. Hey, if we find proof that he's behind Knight Avaris's disappearance, do you think we're allowed to like, steal an ashtray or something on the way out?" Michelle said, grinning a bit as she started to go through the drawers of the desk.

"Don't think we're allowed to, but I won't tell if you don't." Anakin replied, looking through the bookshelves.

"I really wouldn't recommend that." A man's voice said, as the door creaked open, revealing several guards aiming blasters at the padawans.

There was a long, tense silence, before Michelle sighed in disgust, and raised her hands.

"We are utterly fucked here, aren't we?" She said, in the one of someone who knew the answer was yes.

"Essentially, yes." One of the guards responded, before firing at Michelle, a blue light hitting her dead on.

She dropped like a stone, hitting the floor of the office with a thud. Darkness rushed in, as consciousness slipped away from her.

As she passed out, she thought she heard Anakin yelling something, but she couldn't understand the words.

* * *

Coltin had a difficult time sleeping that night, spending most of the night drifting in and out of an uneasy rest. Ironically enough, he was hoping to be woken up, by the sound of his comm ringing. At some point, Michelle was supposed to call to check in, and update on what her and Anakin had found, even if it was nothing. But, to his dismay, come morning, there was still no updates.

Something had gone wrong.

In the sitting room, Obi-Wan looked equally stressed, although the younger man hid it better. The only sign of his distress was his body language, which was sharp and clipped. Unless you knew what to look for, the knight was a perfect display of poise. Coltin was both impressed and slightly jealous.

"Michelle didn't contact me last night." He opened, well aware that Obi-Wan had probably figured that out just from the look on Coltin's face.

"Neither did Anakin. I can't reach him through our bond either, he's either blocking me out, or he's unconscious right now. What about you and Michelle?"

Coltin was shaking his head before the question even finished.

"Michelle… she hasn't taken the shielding off our bond in months. I doubt she's going to start now. All I know is she's alive."

Obi-Wan scowled at that, placing a hand against his chin in thought. Coltin suddenly had the thought that the man should grow a beard, but brushed it aside. The facial hair of another knight really wasn't the biggest issue right now.

"We'll cover for them until the end of the day. If they haven't gotten to us by then, we'll go looking." Obi-Wan said, sounding decisive.

Coltin was going to point out that, technically speaking, he was in charge of the mission, and this was his decision. Fortunately, before he could shove his foot back in his mouth, there was a knock at the door, and a pair of servants entered, carrying several trays.

"Your breakfasts, Master Jedi." One of them said in explanation, both placing the tray's down on the coffee table, before quickly leaving.

Coltin let out a long breath, and attempted to center himself in the Force.

"Let's get something to eat. I'm not dealing with this shit on an empty stomach." He sighed, sitting down on one of the couches and pulling a tray towards him. After a moment, he was joined by Obi-Wan, who sat across from him, taking his own tray.

They ate in silence or a while, before Obi-Wan spoke up.

"I don't mean to pry, but… Why is the bond between you and Padawan Ketros so closed off? That… well, that seems unhealthy." He said, with noticeably hesitance.

Coltin sighed, putting down his fork and looking away.

"That's… a bit of a story. I know it's not the best set-up, but… I don't know if anything can fix it, outside of time."

"If you want to talk about it, I don't mind." Obi-Wan said. He was the picture of open neutrality, but there was a look in his eyes that made it clear he was curious about the situation.

"… Only if you'll keep this relatively quiet." Coltin said, a tone of warning to his voice.

"Of course."

"…On our last mission, Michelle took a blow to the head and passed out. When she woke up… she didn't remember anything. Not me, not the temple, not her training, nothing. She's been blocking me out subconsciously ever since. I tried to bring it up with her, but she just deflected, and avoided the conversation. I don't know what to do. Sometimes, it's like she's a completely different person. I… I just wish I knew how to help her. She doesn't trust me, and really, why would she? I'm just some fucking guy she's known for two months. It's hard. She used to have so much talent and potential, and now all of that's… gone. She spent her whole life working to become a Jedi Knight, and now sometimes it feels like she doesn't even care! I don't know how to help her! I don't know if I can!"

"…Anakin was raised outside of the Temple. I never meant to become his master, but… there was nobody else, and I promised I would. I don't know if I'm the best master Anakin could possibly have… but I'm glad he's my student. I don't know what I'd be doing with myself right now if it wasn't for him."

A silence fell between the two men, heavy with emotions, yet comfortable all the same. That is, until Coltin broke it by snickering suddenly, hitting his forehead with his palm.

"Shit. That's why we're working together. Michelle and Anakin can bond over similar situations, and we can talk to someone who understands. Those sneaky bastards."

Obi-Wan blinked for a moment, and realised that Coltin was completely correct.

"Damn it, you're right. We've been played." He said with a shake of his head, although there was an amused grin pulling at his lips.

"Those fuckers. Setting us and our padawans up to make healthy friendships. How dare they." Coltin replied, laughter still in his voice.

The new-found friendship he'd found with his fellow knight made for a good distraction, but the early issue was still at hand. Michelle and Anakin were still out of reach, both through technology and the Force. The two teenagers were on their own.

At least Coltin knew she was still alive. He had that much.

* * *

" _-Need to wake up-"_

" _Can't… very long…"_

" _Can… hear me?"_

" _Michelle?"_

Michelle woke up with a groan, her head aching. She was laying on something hard and uncomfortable, not like the soft carpet she had passed out on. It was colder as well, the kind that sank into her bones despite her winter tunic. Her winter tunic… that she wasn't wearing. Her gloves were gone as well, along with her shoes and lightsaber. In all, she was down to just her undershirt and pants. That was probably a bad sign. At least her padawan braid was untouched.

She sat up, pressing a hand against her aching forehead with a wince.

She was in a bare concrete cell, without any windows. Three of the walls were concrete, with the fourth being only metal bars. Across from her, there was a cell, which looked identical to hers, with the exception of it having a crumpled form on the floor. One that looked like it belonged to a child. A familiar child.

Stiffly, Michelle got to her feet, using one of the walls for support as she walked over to the bars of her cell. A quick glance up and down the hallway showed that there was nobody in sight, guards or other prisoners. They were alone, at least for now.

"Anakin! Anakin, get up!" She hissed, irrationally afraid of raising her voice for some reason.

Anakin made a muffled groan, and shifted, raising his head to look at Michelle with bleary eyes.

"Ugh… what? What happened? Where are we?"

Michelle frowned, anxiety spiking in her.

"Was kind of hoping you'd know that. What happened after I was knocked out?"

"Not much. I tried to attack the guys, and I got stunned too. Woke up to you yelling just now. Where's our stuff?"

"How the hell would I know, I just woke up too! Sorry! Didn't mean to yell, stressed and angry here." Michelle snapped, brushing her padawan braid back in annoyance.

Anakin started to respond, but was cut off by the slam of a heavy door opening. In unison, the two turned to look down the hallway.

Two men and a woman were walking down the hall, the woman and one of the men walking a step behind the man in the middle. All three were wearing uniforms, although Michelle didn't recognise them.

But one thing was clear about the trio, and a glance over at Anakin confirmed that he had drawn the same conclusion. The three adults were dangerous.

They came to a stop between Anakin and Michelle's cells, standing so that they could see them both at the same time. The two that were flanking both fell into identical positions, backs straight and hands clasped behind their backs, military style. In front of them, the leader pressed his hands together, and gave the two padawans a warm smile. Despite this, a feeling of darkness radiated off of him, making any attempt at friendliness a thin facade at best. Michelle held back a shiver, as dread coiled in her stomach.

"Hello little Jedi. I've got some questions for you. It shouldn't take too much of your time, if you're cooperative."

Michelle had a bad feeling about this.

* * *

 **AN: Yeah, she really should.**

 **Also Obi-Wan and Coltin are now friends, and you can fight me, because I've actually planned this out. The friendship serves a purpose beyond Coltin and Obi-Wan's mental stability. The bonding between them is basically set up right now, it'll come up later.**


	9. Part 1, Chapter 9: This Is It

**AN: Hello again. Warning, this chapter gets a little dark. Like, literally beating a child dark. Just a heads up.**

 **Also, we've hit a milestone! 1000 hits, as of last chapter! Thank you to everyone whose been here from day one, and to everyone who threw in along the way. Really, I'm an ego gremlin that lives off validation, this is like the only thing that gets me through the week. Hashtag crippling depression and all.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Part 1, Chapter 9: This Is It

"Really, all I want is complete, honest answers, and we'll all be saved quite a bit of trouble." The lead man continued, the affable smile still in place.

"What happens if we're not cooperative?" Anakin asked, thus proving that he had no survival instincts whatsoever.

The man's smile gained an edge to it, the kind façade slipping.

"Well, then I'm afraid we'll have to persuade you."

"Um, I have questions too. Namely… who are you? What are we doing here? Where are we?" Michelle demanded, cutting off Anakin before he could speak again, and drawing the groups attention on to her instead of the younger boy.

"I am Alex Virta. You are inside my facility. And as for why… well, you already know the answer to that one."

"…No, I really don't. That's why I asked. What are we being charged with? I want a lawyer. You do realize your actions jeopardize Rellekka's negotiations with the Republic, right?"

Alex chuckled. It was not a nice laugh.

"That is the point here. But enough of this. You're very intent on asking questions, would you mind answering a couple?"

"If I can, sure." Michelle said, trying to hide her apprehension. At the same time, she was also doing her best to silently beg Anakin to _please_ just stay quiet and not draw their attention.

"What is your name?"

"Michelle Ketros."

"What are you doing on Rellekka?"

"Accompanying my Master on a mission."

"What is that mission?"

"To continue negotiations to bring Rellekka into the republic, and to find out what happened to the knight that came originally."

"Who told you about the existence of the Rellekkan Integrity Coalition?"

At that Michelle faltered, causing a break in the fast paced questions and answers.

"I… what is that?"

Alex made a tutting sound, giving Michelle a mock saddened look.

"Oh, Michelle, please don't lie to me. You're not going to enjoy the consequences."

"N-no, wait, seriously, I have no idea what you're talking about!" She protested, eyes wide with alarm as the Force practically screamed of immediate peril.

"Immo. Ritta." Alex snapped, and the two guard behind him drew batons out of holsters. They looked heavy. And like they would be incredibly painful to be hit by.

"Last chance Michelle." Alex warned, although the grin on his face made it very clear he was hoping she didn't take that chance. And it was his lucky fucking day, because Michelle had _no idea what he was talking about._

"I don't know what that is!"

Alex sighed, shrugging slightly.

"It's so sad, seeing a child like you lying so easily to your elder. Don't worry, we'll… correct this error."

"Bring it." Michelle snapped, mostly out of pure defiance at this point. Since there was nothing she could fucking say to make them believe her anyways.

There was a pause, as fear and angry defiance battled inside Michelle. Outside of her cell, Alex gave her a long, considering look.

"You know, I read somewhere that a Jedi would find it more painful to see another being suffer than to be personally suffering." He said to her in a conversational tone. "I'd rather like to see if it's true. Grab the boy."

The two guards went into Anakin's cell, and easily grabbed the boy, manhandling him into the hall, ignoring Anakin's struggles, and Michelle yelling in protest.

"Feeling talkative?" Alex asked, raising his voice over the yelling.

"I don't know what you want!" She cried out, grabbing at the bars of her cell in the hopes that it would somehow make her pleas more believable.

The first blow struck Anakin in the side, a hard impact that Michelle could hear. He didn't cry out, only wincing and letting out a long breath in pain. Which, really, somehow only made things worse, because what kind of thirteen year old knows how to stay quiet while being hurt?

Well, Michelle already knew the probable reason for that.

As the beating progressed, Michelle discovered something that she didn't expect. Despite staying mostly silent, Anakin was unintentionally broadcasting through the Force, sending off enough pain and distress to make Michelle's skin crawl. There was a burning starting in her chest, fear and panic mixing together in her and condensing into _fucking pissed_.

As they were hitting Anakin, Alex kept demanding that Michelle talk, and she continued to insist that she had _no fucking clue what he was talking about_. Needless to say, it didn't seem to work.

Finally, after what seemed like a horrifying forever, Alex gave an order, and the beating ceased. Michelle breathed a sigh of relief, slumping slightly against the bars of the cell, rage abating somewhat. Still being held by the guards, Anakin slumped to the ground, half conscious.

"Alright Michelle. Since you're not feeling talkative, I'll give you some time to think over your choice. And while you're thinking over that, just know that when I come back? Our little friend here is going to be losing some fingers if you don't have an answer for me."

"What the fuck is wrong with you!?" Michelle demanded, a horrified look on her face. Alex just smiled.

"There's nothing wrong with me. I'm a man who loves my planet, and is protecting its best interests. Throw the boy in with her, see if he can help change her mind."

And with that, Anakin was physically thrown into Michelle's cell, although she caught him before he hit the concrete. The cell was locked again, and without a word, Alex and the guards left the hallway of cells.

Looking down, Michelle realised that Anakin had passed out at some point. With a long sigh, she arranged it so that he was lying on the floor, his head resting on her knees.

And then, thoroughly alone, Michelle leaned back against the wall and quietly cried.

* * *

It took about ten minutes for Coltin to remember why he tried to avoid diplomatic missions involving complicated negotiations. It was mostly because he both sucked at it, and hated it with a less than Jedi like passion.

To make matters worse, he was fairly certain Obi-Wan could tell, judging by the way he had casually been doing most of the talking, in a way that didn't undermine Coltin's additions. It was honestly impressive. The man was some sort of a diplomatic prodigy, despite a distaste for politicians he had expressed earlier.

And it was a petty point, but his formal tunics had _sleeves_. He really hated wearing sleeves. He didn't know why, but bare arms felt much more comfortable than covered. It was a fact that Michelle found annoying, and the two had had many joking arguments over his fashion choices.

Normally, him wearing sleeves was a cause for Michelle to take some friendly jabs. But she hadn't even mentioned his formal tunics.

Really, after her amnesia, she had been so… different. Sometimes it felt like she wasn't even his padawan anymore. Not that he would ever tell her that. She seemed insecure enough about her missing memories. Which was rather odd in of itself, as she was usually a bastion of confidence.

Coltin was jolted out of his melancholy by a faint disturbancein the Force, not enough to actually bother him, but just enough to get his attention. Sitting beside him, Obi-Wan's mouth tightened slightly, a faint wince of pain that would have been invisible to anyone else. Clearly, he had felt it too, and stronger than Coltin had.

Impressively, the man kept his composure for the next hour, before a break was called for a late lunch, and the two knights were able to get some privacy.

"What's going on? All I could feel was a disturbance, but it seemed to affect you more-"

"Anakin's hurt." Obi-Wan said sharply, sounding distressed. "I can feel it, but I can't get through to him, he's too off-balance. He's - oh. It stopped? He's still hurting, but not being hurt, if that makes sense. We need to find the padawans."

"Hold on. Michelle's shields are still up, they'd go down if she was hurting too. She can get Anakin out of whatever mess they're in. We'll give them until tonight, and then we'll go looking." Coltin said, at the same time surreptitiously checking Michelle through their training bond. As usual, still alive, and fully shielded.

"But Anakin-"

"Can take care of himself, and has Michelle watching his back. Not to mention we don't even know where they are right now. I'm not thrilled about it either, but we've got a mission to stick to. The council's going to have our asses if we bail out on the mission to sprint off and pull the kids out of the first bit of trouble."

Obi-Wan let out a long, agitated breath, and ran a hand through his hair.

"Alright. We'll wait until tonight."

* * *

After a few minutes of lounging in self-pity, Michelle finally took a deep, shaky breath, wiped the tears off her face, and firmly told herself to calm the fuck down, and get to work solving the mess. First things first, she should probably rouse Anakin.

"Anakin? Come on, I need you to wake up." She said, adjusting his position so that she was better able to try and get him to come around.

"Ugh… go'way." He mumbled, squeezing his eyes tighter and turning his head.

"Anakin! Oh thank god, you're okay!" She said, pulling him into a relieved hug, and earning another noise of annoyance.

"Stop… I wanna sleep, I've earned it after that…"

"You want to lose fingers?" She demanded, a slightly incredulous tone to her voice.

Anakin's eyes snapped open.

"Wait, what!?"

"That Alex guy said they're gonna start cutting off bits if I don't start talking. And… they still don't believe that I have no fucking idea what they're on about."

"...Well shit."

"Yeah, no kidding."

There was a brief silence, as Anakin dragged himself back to full consciousness, and Michelle thought over their situation.

Because it… wasn't good.

Michelle didn't have the information they wanted. And when she inevitably couldn't give them the information they wanted, they were going to start cutting off Anakin's fingers. And that was not acceptable. The little shit wasn't allowed to lose parts in an avoidable fashion until he was nineteen, damn it. And Michelle was going to ensure that.

So. She couldn't cooperate, and she wouldn't let them hurt Anakin. So. She needed a third option.

Breaking the fuck out sounded like a good idea.

Leaving Anakin sitting on the floor, she got up and went over to the cell door, running her hand over the lock.

"What's up?" Anakin said, stiffly getting up and joining Michelle.

"Well, we're stuck between two shitty options. I'm taking a third. If I can just figure out how to pick the lock with the Force…" She said, trailing off as she attempted to concentrate, picturing the locks inner mechanisms in her mind, and trying to figure out how to move them into the correct position.

Anakin looked between her and the unaffected lock for a moment, before raising his own hand. The cell door was promptly blasted off its hinges, hitting Anakin's former cell bars with a loud clang.

Michelle gave him a surprised look, and he shrugged.

"I mean, they're gonna figure out we've escaped. Might as well cause some property damage on the way out." He said, sounding mildly defensive. Michelle made a small thoughtful sound.

"That's a good philosophy. Let's get out of here." She said, stepping out into the hall, casually stepping around the small bloodstains from Anakin earlier. He followed her lead, surprisingly spry for a kid that had just been beaten.

Although, considering his history, chances are good he was used to it.

...And that was some dark musing that she really shouldn't think about. Moving the train of thought right along.

The other cells in the hall were all empty, with no signs of other prisoners. Either there weren't a whole lot of people imprisoned, or the facility was large enough that they had an empty hall to throw Michelle and Anakin in. Michelle had a sinking feeling that it was the latter.

The door at the end of the hall was also locked, which was solved in the same manner that their cell had been handled. Namely, by having Anakin smash it down.

It was nice to have a human battering ram. She should look into figuring out how to do it herself.

Unfortunately, there was a guard in the corridor, who noticed the causal property damage, and escaping Jedi. She also wasted no time in raising a blaster at the teenagers.

Acting fast, Michelle grabbed the fallen door with the Force, and threw it, effectively taking the guard out via metal door to the everything at a high speed. She followed it up via high-fiving Anakin.

Shouts started up from down the corridor, and the sound of running footsteps. Michelle quickly decided that a metal door was not a good weapon against multiple armed guards, and took off running in the opposite direction, Anakin hot on her heels.

They came to a fork, and Michelle started for the left, picking at random. She was surprised with a hand grabbing her wrist, tugging her right instead, and making her stumble, barely staying upright as Anakin effectively dragged her in the other direction.

"What the hell man!" She cried out, staggering to regain her balance, and removing her wrist from his grasp.

"We need to go this way!"

"Why!?"

"I don't know, the Force wants me to!"

Michelle set her mouth, and kept running, deciding that fuck it, she was going to follow whatever it was Anakin was picking up on. On purpose, she lagged behind half a step, so that she could change directions without being tugged around. That was how you get a dislocated shoulder.

"Wait! In here!" Anakin said, skidding to a stop in front of a door, with Michelle stumbling to a halt as well.

Anakin didn't even bother trying the handle, blasting it off its hinges as well, and rushing inside the room.

It was small and cramped, and had boxes stacked up in shelves along the wall, all labeled with numbers that probably made sense for someone.

And on a table in the corner, some familiar objects had been thrown carelessly on the metal. Namely, Michelle and Anakin's stuff.

With a cry of joy, Anakin scooped up his lightsaber, and put his belt back on, hooking the lightsaber in place. Beside him, Michelle quickly shoved her shoes back on her feet, wrapped her belt around her waist, and tied her winter tunic around her hips, in order to keep it out of the way until she had the time to actually put it on. Clothing reclaimed, she hooked her lightsaber on her belt.

"Dude, you have some weird priorities." Anakin pointed out, awkwardly getting his shoes back on as well.

"It's cold outside, and I like this tunic. Grab yours, if we manage to escape only to freeze to death outside, that's going to be pretty fucking stupid."

"Yes Master Ketros." Anakin deadpanned, although he did throw his tunic over his shoulder.

"There they are!" Someone yelled, and both padawans whirled around, lightsabers igniting.

"Aw, shit." Michelle muttered, looking at the multiple guards that were now aiming blasters at them. Michelle had the feeling they weren't set to stun this time.

"Drop your weapons and surrender!" One of them ordered.

Anakin reached for his lightsaber, but Michelle put a hand on his shoulder, halting him.

"No, no. We're outnumbered." She said, loud enough for the guards to hear. Then calmly, she removed her lightsaber from her belt, and threw it so that it landed in the hall, and rolled behind the guards. Slowly, Anakin reached for his lightsaber to follow her example, but she squeezed his shoulder, silently ordering him to stay where he was.

There was a tense moment, as Michelle slowly raised her hands. The guard's blasters lowered slightly.

And them, using the Force, she pulled her lightsaber towards her, activating it mid-flight.

Needless to say, several guards in her path dropped like rocks, some injured, and some probably dead. Michelle was pointedly not thinking about that.

Her lightsaber hilt hit her hand with a satisfying smack, and she took off running, Anakin close behind her. A few blaster bolts were sent after them, but Anakin and Michelle both deflected any in their path. The Force really was handy sometimes.

They kept running through the prison, guards hot on their heels, and alarms blaring. After about five minutes of sprinting, the two Jedi entered a large garage, filled with speeders. And, also filled with guards. Because their luck was a fucking bitch sometimes.

"Anakin, get us a speeder, I'll cover you!" Michelle yelled, making a snap decision. Anakin quickly flung himself into a speeder, ducking under the steering wheel to do… something. Michelle was slightly busy defending them both against a barrage of blaster fire.

This was easier said than done, as the guards had some annoyingly good aim. Really, couldn't they have been stormtroopers or something? And couldn't Anakin hotwire a landspeeder faster?

As they fired, she was steadily driven back, trying to keep her defense at the same pace as the shooting. This was unfortunately coupled with the guards approaching, matching her retreat. This continued, until she backed right into the speeder Anakin was inside.

Fuck.

Desperately trying to keep up with the blaster bolts and approaching guards, Michelle felt fear and anxiety welling up inside her again, panic grabbing at her heart like a vice.

A blaster bolt slipped past her defences, and grazed her upper arm, making her fall back with a yelp of pain, falling onto the hood of the speeder.

"Ready to give up Jedi!?" Someone yelled. A few other guards laughed, mockery in their voices.

Her fear spiked, reaching the point where it turned to anger. She had to protect herself and Anakin. She wasn't good enough to do it with her lightsaber-

But she was armed with more than a lightsaber.

She drew on the Force, and lashed out at the guards, sending them flying away from her like bowling pins.

The anger in her head felt like a raging storm, outside of her control. It was like she was outside of her body, cut off from her actions, watching herself raise her hands higher, holding the guards up against the wall by their throats, and squeezing.

A part of her knew that what she was doing was very, horribly _wrong_ , but she couldn't stop, couldn't control herself, didn't _want_ to control herself. Wanted to strike back at the people who had hurt her, make them pay for _everything_.

She felt powerful. The Force that she had dipped into was stronger than she had ever felt before, and it was almost addictive.

The dark side was tugging at her, pulling her down into it, seeping into her mind,

And she didn't care enough to fight it.

* * *

 **AN: I mean, I did say this chapter would get dark.**

 **If you want to quit the story because of that pun, I completely understand. Be free.**

 **Also, buckle the fuckle up for more crying, because Part 1 is basically the one where Michelle is justifiably crying anytime she's got a few minutes to let it all out. In part 2 she'll be too busy for any feelings beyond "fuck this shit I'm out" and variations of the same, and after that she's free from Teenage Horomone Hell and is a bit more settled down.**

 **I hope everyone's super duper invested in the plot of the mission because it's about to get slam dunked into the backseat for a while.**


	10. Part 1, Chapter 10: Feel It In My Bones

**AN: To those of you who didn't quit in disgust at the pun in the last chapter, welcome back! Also, why would you ever willingly read the work of someone who mad a pun like that? Honestly. Love yourself.**

 **On the other hand fuck yeah, ten chapters!**

 **Almost done with part 1!**

 **Also, I received a review from a Guest a bit ago that brought up a pretty valid point about my characters dialogue, which will be addressed at the end of the chapter.**

 **EDIT: So um, I just realised I uploaded this a day early, because apparently when it's 5 AM I don't understand how time functions so um sorry about that hope you enjoyed the early update see you all Friday! And yes it took me like a day to realise I'd made a mistake shut up.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Part 1, Chapter 10: Feel It In My Bones

The darkness was pulling at her, clouding her mind and polluting her senses. Everything felt unreal, disconnected, unimportant. Sound was muffled, as if she was listening from underwater. The guards choking and yelling barely even crossed her notice, and really, it wasn't important enough to make her stop. Why would she care? She was hitting back at the people who had hurt her. There was nothing wrong with that.

Something cut through the fog, a familiar voice shouting something. Something… her name?

"-Chelle! MICHELLE, STOP!"

"...Anakin?" She asked quietly, still feeling unhinged from reality. Her hands wavered slightly, her grip on the guards throats relaxing slightly, just enough for them to breathe again, although only a little.

"Yeah, it's me. You need to calm down. You're done. It's okay. Drop the guards, we're safe now. Just… please, stop this." Anakin said, sounding as if he was trying to coax a feral animal out of attacking. And… was that a tone of fear to his voice?

"I… what?"

"If you don't calm down, you're going to fall. And I really don't think I can deal with that right now."

Michelle was suddenly struck with the extreme surreality that _Darth fucking Vader_ was lecturing her on the dark side. That...

That was a bit of a red flag.

Snapping back into focus, she realised just what it was she was doing, and dropped her hands, the guards all falling unconscious to the floor. Hands shaking, she sat down on the hood of the speeder, trying to process what it was that she had just done. That… that hadn't been her.

"Michelle? We need to go. Now." Anakin said, still sounding like he was trying to talk her down from a rampage. She wasn't sure if that was an overreaction or not.

"I… I used the dark side. Holy shit." She said quietly feeling numb.

"We can deal with that later. You need to get in the speeder. Come on."

"...Right. You're right. We need to go." Michelle forced out, stumbling over to sit in the passenger seat, folding her shaking hands in her lap. Beside her, Anakin climbed into the driver's seat, and started up the speeder, neatly driving them out of the garage.

After a minute with no signs of pursuit, Anakin started fiddling with a screen on the dashboard, doing something that Michelle didn't understand.

While he was fiddling, Michelle realised that she was actually fucking freezing, and her bare arms were covered in goosebumps. Shivering slightly, she undid her belt, and untied her winter tunic from her waist, before putting it on properly, and wrapping the belt back over it. Anakin hadn't seemed to notice, instead scowling at the screen, clearly not liking whatever it was he had found.

"Hell. We're like, a five hour drive away from the parliament building. It's gonna be a long drive. Did you get your commlink back with your stuff? Because mine wasn't there, and it's just hit me that we never checked in."

"...No, I don't have it."

"Well, our Masters are going to be worrying sick about us for a while then." Anakin said with forced cheer, adjusting the speeders course slightly to follow what Michelle presumed was the equivalent of a GPS.

Michelle didn't bother replying, resting her head back on the seat, and looking out the window, trying to even out her breathing.

The next hour or so passed in awkward silence, Anakin not knowing what to say, and Michelle not feeling up to verbalising anything. Finally, she shifted from 'quietly freaking out' to 'relatively calm and sort of bored'. This was enough motivation to get her talking again.

"So. I fucked this up." She said quietly, not making eye contact with Anakin. "My first mission, and I get captured, get a younger padawan tortured, and almost fall. That's a great start."

There was a pause.

"...You're sixteen, how is this your first mission?"

Michelle winced, realising that ah yes, she hadn't actually told him that particular aspect about her.

"Um… I've got amnesia. Don't remember anything before two months ago. Been learning everything from scratch. So… technically, I've done missions before. I just… don't remember. It's weird. I feel like… I don't belong at the temple. Everybody there was raised in the order, and knows exactly what to do. They're literally working off a lifetime of training. And I'm… not."

"...I didn't come to the temple until I was nine." Anakin offered quietly.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Grew up in the outer rim, a planet called Tatooine. Qui-Gon found me when I was nine, brought me back to the temple, promised to train me. Then… he died, so Obi-Wan had to do it. I've got it a bit better than you right now, I guess, with four years in the temple, but… I don't know. I feel like I don't belong there either."

Michelle snorted.

"Shit. So you get it too, huh?"

There was another pause, before Michelle sighed.

"I dunno if you've got it easier than me here. I mean, you just got thrown into a new place, with only Obi-Wan on your side. Least I had pre-made friends and people that already apparently knew me. And even though I had no fucking clue who they were, they still stuck around. I think you'd get along with some of them, Seha's an unholy terror in the salles, and Neria's a terrifying mechanic, and even more frightening pilot. Seems like your kind of people."

"Huh. Maybe, yeah." Anakin said, sounding vaguely cautious.

"I could introduce you, maybe. When we get back to the temple. Or we could just hang out. Rant about weird Jedi shit." Michelle offered, the usual social anxiety coming back up, as it always did whenever she tried to form a friendship with anyone. Really, it was good that Ketros had had friends, otherwise Michelle would have ended up the biggest damn loner in the temple.

"I- yeah! That'd be awesome!" Anakin said, sounding genuinely surprised that Michelle wanted to hang out with him. She could relate.

"Sweet. Oh, man, I just realised. We're… really similar. D'you think the council put us working together because of that? Like, hey kids go make friends with each other. Outcast squad form up, or whatever."

"...Isn't that a little bit paranoid?"

"No such thing. These are strange times my dude. You can _never_ be too paranoid. Seriously, I have conspiracy theories. So many interesting theories. Like, I'm 900% certain there's a sith lord on Couruscant, it would just make sense. Who it is, I'm still juggling. My main suspect is this one mouse droid that keeps running over my foot, because that thing is a menace."

Anakin snickered.

"Isn't that a little bit… crazy?"

"Crazy times call for crazy theories. I have many such theories. On my sith lord suspect list, I've also got Master Yoda, because his aim with that damn stick is suspiciously good, Mace Windu, because purple is awfully close to red, and, of course, my personal favourite suspect. The one that makes the most damn sense if you think about it. Really, I should start a chart or something for this shit, it would make so much sense-"

"Oh Force, who is it." Anakin said with laughter in his voice, clearly taking the entire thing as a joke. Which was good, as Michelle didn't want him to take the conversation too seriously yet, and was really just trying to get the possibility in his head.

"Chancellor Palpatine."

* * *

Anakin's reaction to her casually outing Palpatine as a Sith had been less than encouraging, in that he had burst out laughing. But that was sort of what she expected. The fact that he was thinking about it was good enough for now.

And as a side bonus, when all this was done with, she'd be known as that one crackpot conspiracy theorist that was _right_. So that was a perk.

After that, the mood had been light, and they'd spent the rest of the drive mostly joking around, and generally just hanging out. Road trips were fun with friends, even with the less than good circumstances they were getting away from.

But, it really couldn't last.

After they'd been driving for about two and a half hours, Anakin gave a large yawn, enough to make their speeder lurch alarmingly, making Michelle grab at the 'oh shit' handle in alarm.

"Okay, I'm putting my foot down, you need to pull over and sleep. I'm kind of terrified of the idea of being in an accident, and you've been yawning a lot, you're pulling over and getting some shut eye before we both crash. Because that would just be embarrassing." She ordered, although she was probably obviously tense.

Anakin frowned.

"I'm good to keep going-"

"Look, no offense, but I do not trust an exhausted thirteen year old to drive. We're not in that desperate of a situation."

"Fiiine. You can take over."

"Your faith in me is astounding. Amnesia, remember? I can't fucking drive."

There was a pause.

"Well shit." Anakin said, pulling over. Wary of pursuit still, he pulled over via driving into the forest nearby, concealing them from the road. A bit of Force manipulation, and they were effectively invisible from the road.

"Alright, I'm taking dibs on the backseat. Wake me up in a few hours." Anakin said, letting out another yawn, before crawling into the backseat, flinging his tunic over himself like a blanket.

"Alright. I… think I need to go meditate. I'll be outside."

"Have fun." He muttered, already half asleep. Michelle envied his ability to just pass out anywhere.

Outside, it seemed to be the late afternoon, verging on evening. The light shining through the trees looked like it was the very starts of a sunset, which probably meant there was an hour or two of light left. A chill was starting to set in the air, and Michelle pulled her cold hands into her sleeves, to keep them warm. Would have been great if she had brought gloves, but _no_ -

No, wait. She had brought gloves.

…And left them in the prison.

Fuck damn it.

Cold hands aside, she had bigger problems. Problems that really needed to be addressed. And would probably be done through meditation.

With a long exhale, she settled down on the forest floor, her back resting against the speeder, and went down into meditation, finding it relatively easy to enter.

The grey space was the same as usual, which came as almost a surprise to her. For some reason, she'd been expecting it to be corrupted, damaged by her little foray into the dark side. But there was no sign of it.

Michelle chose to take that as a good thing.

And the matter of her field trip into blatant insanity…

She'd completely lost control. Not only of the Force, not only of her emotions, but of _herself_. Was that actually what the dark side was like? That heavy of a dissociation? Or maybe that was just the entry level, the first step into darkness. Fuck knows she wasn't a Sith. And Anakin had mentioned that she wasn't actually fallen, just close to it. Maybe she would be alright?

One thing was for sure, Zinnia's instructions two months earlier about not using the Force while emotional probably should have been followed. If it wasn't for Anakin…

Well. Things would have been bad.

Before her musings could continue, a shimmering outline appeared. Like…

Like that first time Ketros had tried to contact Michelle, back when she had first arrived.

"Ketros!?" Michelle called, for however much that meant while communicating through the Force. "Are you there?"

And suddenly, Michelle was looking at herself.

Obviously, it wasn't actually her. The person sitting across from her was wearing a sleeveless tunic, which was a dark reddish purple, almost pink, and had a violet belt wrapped around her waist. Her undershirt was a more royal purple, and her pants were loose and black. The outfit was familiar to Michelle, in that it was in her damn closet back at the temple.

But unlike her, the other person had a steely look in her eyes, and held herself like she knew exactly what she was doing, and had no time for anybody's bullshit in the process.

This wasn't Michelle. This was Padawan Ketros.

And she did not look happy.

"Hi. I broke through the veil of death because you need to stop."

 **AN: Gonna be real here, back in September, at like 4 AM one night, I was trying to stagger into bed, but my brain was like 'no, wait! Good line, write it down'. So I typed something into my phone, and promptly faceplanted into my pillows. Ten hours later, I woke up and checked what I'd written, and it just said "For Displacement introduce Ketros with 'hi I broke through the veil of death because you need to stop' it'll be great". So… that last sentence goes out to sleep deprived Gay Jesus, and their tired and confused ways.**

 **Also, next chapters gonna be a bombshell. Like, I've spent the entire story so far foreshadowing it kind of bombshell. It's gonna be fucked up.**

 **Okay so. Rebuttal time.**

 **For those of you that don't feel like looking yourselves, a guest left a review basically saying "Everybody's speech patterns are casual as hell and it's not right for the setting, it should be just Michelle being herself while other Jedi wonder what the fuck is wrong with her."**

 **And I'll admit, that kind of bummed me out at first. Because we're a bit late to start revamping the speech patterns of literally everybody. And then I put a bit more thought into the matter, and realised that no, I actually don't need to change anything, I'm good.**

 **Because. Michelle's speech patterns are acknowledged as odd a few times. She reflexively makes references sometimes, and literally nobody picks up on them. At one point in part 3, she's going to be presented with literally the greatest set up in the fucking universe, and it will physically pain her that nobody would get it if she made the joke, because there is no context for anyone but her.** **But for her usual relaxed patterns, if she was the only source of humour surrounded by a small army of very unimpressed people playing the Straight Man? It would get really boring, really fast. You can't work with that. So from a purely narrative standpoint, if I do that, I'm shooting myself in the foot. Not to mention the dialogue is really fun most of the time, and if I make it boring, I lose a good chunk of motivation to write this at all.**

 **And, every Jedi being 100% dignified isn't even canon to begin with. Garen Muln, Quinlan Vos, Anakin, Ahsoka, Tahl, and probably a hell of a lot more Jedi appear as canon characters, and only get formal in formal situations (and even then not necessarily). Just because they're Jedi doesn't mean they're all the same. There's personality variations. There's a huge gap between an Obi-Wan type Jedi and a Michelle type Jedi. Neither's wrong, they just have different ways of facing the world. And you'll note I mention that Michelle had to learn etiquette at one point, and struggled with it. And she feels extremely uncomfortable in formal settings. It's how she is. Luckily for her, Coltin is of a similar disposition. And most of Ketros's friends are like that on some level as well.**

 **So the reason everyone's talking casually: Most of the talking is done in casual settings, between people whose natural speech patterns are like that. They've got personalities, and it shows. And you'll notice there _are_ differences. Seha stands out slightly in the group of friends as being more dignified, unless her main interest of lightsaber combat comes up. And on the flip side, Zinnia's incredibly blunt, and doesn't appear to have much in the way of filters. I'll probably do interludes between every part, and those will probably focus on OC's that aren't in the spotlight, as Zinnia in particular has her reasons for acting the way she does. The key word is that she doesn't _appear_ to have filters. But considering she introduced herself by immediately recognising Michelle as a fake, casually luring her away from witnesses while confirming her suspicions and not tipping her hand, and then improving the understanding of the situation within a few minutes... You should probably have figured out that the wheels in her head are turning a hell of a lot more than she likes to let on.**

 **And the Guest complained that everyone sounds like a Tumblr text post. But it's worth noting, Tumblr culture is heavily based upon deflecting people away from your real feelings, and using humour to throw up a barrier. Which is what they're going for, either intentionally or subconsciously. Michelle is obviously a bit fucked up, and Zinnia... will be explained. Seha, Neria and Isaac are more open with themselves, and as a result are closer to the traditional Jedi archetype, with the exception of snark that they've picked up just through a long time spent as friends with Ketros/Michelle and Zinnia. As to why Ketros has that style of talking? Well. That one is Coltin's fault. He's kind of a cowboy style Jedi, and it's influenced his teaching style.**

 **And it's worth mentioning that we have very little canon information on 'business as usual' Jedi lives. All we see is whatever major crises happens to be going down in the movies or shows. There's literally next to nothing of internal temple life. I'm taking a more positive view of the Jedi, namely in that my opinion here is they don't stomp out individuality, and instead embrace it to and extent, and try to set all of its members up for success in the best path for them.**

 **And you'll remember that in the movies, the two biggest protestors against the way the Jedi do things is Anakin and Dooku. Both of whom are being heavily manipulated by Palpatine. You'll forgive me if I take all their complaints with a grain of salt.**

 **Anyways. I stayed up until five AM thinking about this and getting it typed out, so you I'm gonna go pass out now. Night everyone. And this is me editing the document literally minutes before I put it up, so... hi. First time you're getting in authors note in almost real time.**


	11. Part 1, Chapter 11: Make My Systems Glow

**AN: I'm gonna be real here, the reason this chapters going up later in the day is just that I forgot. Had to leave the house early today for therapy, then school, then had some shopping to get done... it's been a long day. Sorry about that! Hey, at least I did remember today, so that's something.**

 **Damn, our last October update. Oh god, NaNo starts soon. So uh, here's your last coherent AN. Or, second last coherent AN's, because I write these things as I write the chapters, and I write those at least a week in advance… so at the time of typing this, I'm looking at the clock on my laptop, and wondering if 1 AM is too early to post chapter 8. I'll probably do it before I leave for school in the morning. Well, you all know, I don't. Isn't it funny how that works?**

 **Moving along.**

 **Oookay. So. Lotta exposition in this chapter. It… it got away from me a bit. You might wanna take notes or some shit cause there's multiple revelations here that are all plot relevant. A few of them have been foreshadowed repeatedly, to the point where I'm willing to bet** _ **someone's**_ **at least guessed it. Looking at you Zeus Killer Productions, who somehow called a characters role in the story after said character had like two lines. Good on you buddy. One of the revelations has been forshadowed twice, once in the form of a throw-away line, and then in a sentence that could be passed off as slightly awkward wording. So if anyone's guessed that I'm gonna lose my fucking shit because there is no explanation for how you figured it out. How. You can't even have broken into my laptop and read the outline because I didn't even fucking write it in the outline, it's just been something I kept in my head as a 'yes this is a relevant fact that I won't forget'. BURN THE WITCH!**

 **Ahem.**

 **So. Long chapter, made up of mostly flashbacks while we find out exactly what the fuck has been going on. Just in case it isn't obvious, the person talking in between flashbacks is always Ketros, speaking to Michelle in their headspace. If that makes any sense.**

 **I swear to god I've put more thought into this than it sounds. When I was first doing the outline, I was actually just gonna handwave the whole thing, but then my brain was like 'no wait hang on what if this happened' and then I was like ah shit I gotta do it. Fun fact. Ketros was not supposed to last beyond Part 1. But guess what fuckers the outlines up to part 4 and she's still going strong so that's my life now.**

 **Goddamn characters insisting on writing their own goddamn stories. I just couldn't do it, y'know? Getting rid of Ketros would be too sad. So if it happens, I'll save it for when it would hurt the** _ **most**_ **. Because I'm a dick. I do have someone I'm gonna kill already though. Might have nicknamed them Canon Fodder. It'll be fun. I will promise that we don't have any protagonists kicking it for realsies until part 3, so enjoy sitting on that paranoia.**

 **But for this chapter. Warnings for some described gore, realistic portrayal of a severe car crash, two kids dying horrible deaths, and a character receiving a severe concussion.**

 **Anyways, enough of me rambling. Enjoy!**

* * *

Part 1, Chapter 11: Enough to Make My Systems Glow

"Hi. I broke through the veil of death because you need to stop."

"...Come again." Michelle said, blinking in surprise.

"So. I can't fucking fix this. There's no fucking way to fix this. We can't duplicate what happened, we can't change it up, we are stuck. Like this. Forever. Congratulations, you've fucking killed me." Ketros snapped, clearly upset.

"What- no, you're not dead! Aren't you just in my life? I mean… it's not what you're used to, but it's not that bad. You can adapt."

"...Are you fucking stupid?"

"No?"

"Because you sound pretty fucking stupid right now. In your life? Really? Don't rub it in."

"Okay- we have a miscommunication here. What are you talking about? Explain. Please."

There was a pause, as Ketros stared at her.

"You… actually don't know. At all. Holy shit."

"Don't know what!?"

"Let me show you something. If I have to deal with this shit, you get to deal with this shit. It's your damn problem after all."

Ketros placed her palms on the grey floor, and the world melted away.

* * *

" _Shut up man-"_

" _LOOK OUT!"_

 _The driver slammed on the brakes, and the car was promptly tailgated by the car behind it. Michelle was knocked forwards by the jolt, the world going black._

 _She woke up in the snow._

 _She'd been thrown from the car somehow, and was laying on the snow, the cold sinking into her skin. Her vision was blurry, and she could see the twisted remnants of her friend's car laying across the road, several other vehicles in similarly wrecked states. There were a few people she could see in the vehicles, in various states of injury. A woman was staggering out of a car, cellphone pressed to their ear, looking over the crash scene with shock._

" _Send ambulances, and hurry. Lots of people are injured. There's one kid, I- I think she's dead-" The woman stammered, out, locking eyes with Michelle._

 _She thought Michelle was dead._

 _Michelle couldn't get her voice to work, but managed a croaking sound, and moved slightly._

" _Oh- oh god, no, the kids not dead, that's worse. That's actually worse. Oh my god. Just- hurry, oh god hurry." The woman stammered out, before staggering away, refusing to look at Michelle. Asshole._

 _Well, since she was not dead, she might as well get up too._

 _She braced her hands on the snow, the cold biting into her palms, and tried to lift herself up._

 _A burning stab of pain overcame her, her vision whiting out as she collapsed again, an agonizing cough ripping itself out of her chest. Red splattered against the snow in front of her._

 _Why… was she coughing blood?_

 _Something was wrong._

 _With great effort, she moved her head, looking down at her chest._

 _A length of metal was stuck through her chest, blood staining her shirt around it, and some on the snow. There was surprisingly little bleeding, which probably made sense, considering the snow and the sign pole ran through her._

 _She spent a long time laying on the snow, struggling to breathe, and trying not to pass out from the pain. Finally, finally, she heard the sound of sirens, multiple ambulances pulling up._

 _A paramedic walked up to her, knelt down, and checked her pulse. Oh thank god, help was here, she was being taken to the hospital, she was going to be fine-_

 _The paramedic sighed, pulled a black tag out of her pocket, and stuck it on Michelle's jacket, before walking away._

 _Walking away?_

 _They were leaving her. Why were they leaving her…?_

 _The paramedic that had been checking over her was now looking over people in the vehicles, calling over other paramedics, and bringing out supplies. Nobody made more than a side glance at Michelle._

 _They had left her to die alone._

 _And, after a few minutes, she did._

* * *

 _"_ But that's not to say this is completely on you. It's sort of a joint effort. Kinda my fault. Mostly my fault we're in this mess. Although, in all fairness… beats the alternative. Let me show you."

* * *

 _The city echoed with the sounds of a riot._

 _Normally, Ketros wouldn't be overly disturbed by that. A bit of good chaos could help sometimes, and lord knows she'd started a riot or two of her own. They made for good distractions in a pinch._

 _Unfortunately, this riot had not been incited by her. This particular riot was brought about by a population reaching the breaking point of stress and desperation, and then some fucker shoving them over the edge, and giving them a target to take it all out on. Just some poor bastards to play the scapegoats and get ripped apart by the angry mob._

 _Now, this would be bad enough on its own. But to make matters worse, the scapegoats in this situation were the Jedi. And the only Jedi on the planet were Ketros and her master. And they had been on opposite sides of the city when the riot broke out._

 _Needless to say, she was not having a good day._

' _Padawan, I don't think I can get to you from here.' Coltin sent, across their training bond._

' _Yeah, similar problems on my end. How about I just steal a ship, and meet you on Couruscant? I think it can be justified as legal, considering that I'm a minor whose life is clearly in danger-'_

 _Despite a lifetime of training in the Force, the effort of holding a mental conversation was still somewhat distracting. As Ketros had been busy running from a furious mob while avoiding various projectiles, it might not have been the best time to split her focus. This was made evident by the rock slamming into her skull, knocking her to the ground with a cry of pain. One of her hands automatically grabbed the point where she was struck, and immediately felt blood. The world was spinning rapidly, and her eyes drifted out of focus. The precision needed to speak with Coltin was effectively shattered, pain, disorientation and the massive bleeding head wound pushing any deft Force manipulation out of her reach._

" _KILL HER!"_

 _Also, there was still an angry mob, and they were closing fast._

 _Doing her best to push the pain aside, Ketros staggered to her feet, trying not to think about the burst of nausea, the shaky feeling to her legs, or the way that the world was still spinning alarmingly._

 _A sudden warning through the Force prompted her to throw her hand up, sending the too-close mob sprawling backwards like bowling pins. That… had probably caused some nasty injuries. Whoops._

 _Well, karma's a bitch._

 _Before the mob could untangle itself, she staggered off down the street again, and quickly ducked into a relatively deserted looking store. Through the employees-only door, she found a bathroom, and locked herself in._

 _The head wound was nastier than she thought, and wow, that was a lot of blood. Clearly, this called for the greatest healing tool of all time. Wet paper towels._

 _After she started dabbing at the wound, the nausea spiked again. Ketros found herself abandoning the sink in favour of the toilet. Specifically, vomiting into it._

 _It felt like an eternity, but was probably just a minute before she was done. She gave herself a moment to just rest her head on the edge of the toilet bowl, and contemplate exactly how awful everything was forever._

 _The cool porcelain against her face was almost comforting, in a strange way. Really, it would be easy to just drift off…_

 _No. She was severely concussed, sleeping was the worst fucking thing to do right now._

 _Dragging herself to her feet again, she returned to the sink, and proceeded to rinse out her mouth, before returning to cleaning her wound. For good measure, she threw some cold water on her face, to help keep her awake._

 _Now slightly more alert, she tried to contact Coltin again._

 _Her pounding headache cranked up a few notches, and her knees buckled, her hands going white-knuckled on the edge of the sink to stay upright. In the mirror, she saw her face go ghostly pale, as her vision swam._

 _So, that hadn't been the best idea. The Force was off-limits then. No sense aggravating the concussion._

 _Ignoring the ringing in her ears, she cracked her knuckles, and left the bathroom, cautiously peeking out into the shop front. It was still deserted, but through the shattered windows she could hear the riot continuing nearby._

 _So. No Force, no Coltin, and an angry mob ready to tear her apart on sight. If she was going to get off planet, she was going to have to be a little more subtle about this._

 _...Wait._

 _She had hidden inside a clothing store._

 _Perfect._

 _She grabbed a hoodie that looked a few sizes too large for her, and ducked back into the employee's only area. A bit of rummaging turned up a first aid kit, which was promptly raided for a bacta patch. Back in the bathroom, she awkwardly applied it, wincing as she moved her hair to put it on. Really, treating wounds on the back of the head was just awful. At least she could reach it though. That was something._

 _She grabbed the hoodie again, and ripped the tags off, shrugging it on. Yup, too large. Perfect for obscuring her frame, and it completely hid her Jedi tunics. Excellent._

 _Ketros was still very obviously a Jedi though. Her Padawan braid was easily hidden, via strategic use of a hairclip she had left in her pocket earlier._

 _She still didn't really blend in, due to the fact that her and Coltin's faces had been broadcasted across the city by the fucker who incited the riot in the first place. And fortunately, that was also fixable. Although with the concussion… it might be a bit more difficult to pull off._

 _Well, life was a bitch like that._

 _Gripping the edge of the sink again, she looked into the mirror and concentrated, mouth set in a hard line. This never came naturally to her, even though it was something that she always able to do. The feeling in of itself was unpleasant enough to make it not worth it._

 _But a bit of discomfort was the price of getting away from that mob safely. She just needed to focus enough on it, and-_

 _There._

 _Ketros's grip on the sink tightened slightly in irritation as the bones of her face shifted, her appearance changing from her usual sharp features into something more generic. For good measure, she shifted her melanin levels down more than she usually had, in order to better blend in with the lighter skinned natives._

 _After a few minutes, she no longer looked like Michelle Ketros, Jedi Padawan. Instead, she looked like a normal pasty faced teenager, androgynous in the oversized hoodie._

 _Despite the many problems it brought, being half clawdite was damn useful sometimes._

 _Admittedly, she couldn't pull off any dramatic shape changes. Altering her appearance was the most she could do at a time, and even then she could only hold a form for about an hour before she had to drop it. And the entire time she was transformed just felt wrong, like she was running around in skin that didn't completely fit. But it was good for a quick disguise, and that was all she needed._

 _Leaving the store and heading back onto the street, she was surprised to round the corner, and run right into the mob that had been hunting her. Holy shit, that was a lot of people with improvised weapons. And was that person wielding knitting needles? Talk about innovation._

" _Hey, kid! We're looking for that Jedi bitch, you see her?" Someone called, clearly aimed at Ketros. Shit._

" _Uh- no, sorry." She stammered, pitching her voice a bit higher than normal. Mutters of annoyance went through the crowd. The person who had called out to Ketros looked around at the other rioters, before surveying Ketros again with a critical eye._

" _Get home kid. It's not safe to be out right now. Those Jedi could be anywhere, they're slippery bastards."_

 _She gave a tense grin, nodded, and ran like hell. The mob didn't pursue._

 _Thank fuck._

 _She didn't encounter any more trouble as she ran towards where she knew a spaceport was. Unfortunately, it was guarded by armed riot police._

 _She could probably sneak in. But frankly, that would take longer than she had. The concussion was noticeably fucking her up now, and she could feel her control of the transformation slipping. It was now or never,_

 _She paused for a moment out of sight, sighed, and ripped the bacta patch off her head, scratching at the wound to start the blood flowing again. Her earlier nausea came back full force, and she doubled over again, silently dry heaving twice before getting control back again. It wasn't hard to muster up tears, pain and frustration making them a bit more real than Ketros would have liked. But whatever. Tears were tears, and these would do._

 _Leaving the alley, she staggered towards the riot police, doing her best to project 'helpless child'. Clearly it worked, as none of them readied weapons, and concern was apparent in some of their faces._

" _Kid, are you okay?"_

" _I- I got hit in the head, and everything started spinning, and I got lost and I don't know how to get home!" She blubbered, maybe a bit more incoherently than necessary. Really, if this Jedi thing didn't work out, she had a promising career as an actor._

" _Shit. Come on, you'll be safe in here, we'll get someone to patch you up-" One of the police began, before another interrupted._

" _Dude, we're not supposed to let anyone in."_

" _She's just a kid! Looks concussed too. If she's dangerous, I'll eat my fucking boots. I'm bringing her in."_

" _...I'm holding you to that." The other one warned, before stepping aside and letting the man escort Ketros in._

 _He walked her across the trashed entry, and down a hall. Through a partially open door, Ketros could see a spacecraft in a landing zone, a model that she knew how to fly._

 _Welp._

" _Sorry about this." She said quietly, before kicking the policeman's legs out from under him, and sprinting for the door._

" _Wha- HEY! STOP!"_

 _But she was already up the landing ramp, and into the ship._

 _Throwing herself into the cockpit, she locked the entire ship down, and took off, quickly leaving the atmosphere. Temporarily safe, she looked around the cockpit, and found a communications relay. It was a simple matter to call Coltin's commlink with it._

 _It rang a few times, before picking up._

" _Hi, little busy here, can this wait- SHOOT ONE MORE TIME MOTHERFUCKER, SEE WHAT HAPPENS!"_

" _Wow master, language."_

" _Michelle! You're okay! What happened, your Force signatures all wonky!"_

" _Ugh, took a hit to the head. Don't worry about it, it's not that bad. Anyways, if you're alright, I'm making for Coruscant, okay?"_

" _Got it. See you there kiddo."_

 _Ending the call, Michelle made short order of putting coordinates into the nav computer, and blasting into hyperspace._

 _With nothing left to do, she let out a shaky breath, and dropped the transformation, wincing as her bones settled back into place, and her skin darkened into its usual brown tone._

 _Ears ringing, and feeling oddly drained, she got up and staggered into the tiny common area of the ship, knees buckling as she collapsed onto the couch._

 _There was something she wasn't supposed to do, but she couldn't remember it right now. All she could do was sleep…_

' _Here's where we get a little metaphysical, but try to keep up.'_

 _Something was wrong._

 _Ketros didn't know how long she had been unconscious, or how she knew there was a problem, but she did. Something was very, very wrong…_

 _Ah. There._

 _She had slipped into a coma. One which seemed to be ending, as her organs were beginning to shut down._

 _Ketros was dying._

 _She was viewing it from the outside almost, disconnected from her body, like meditation but deeper. It would be easy to let go, remove the connection and go into the Force._

 _But… she didn't want to._

 _She was probably supposed to do something here._

 _But it was getting too hard to focus on anything in particular. So, she opened her connection to the Force, and let it guide her._

 _Technically speaking, what she was doing was a desperate, last ditch effort to save her life. Although desperate probably wasn't the best word for it, with the numbness she felt. She didn't care. She didn't care at all._

 _But someone did._

* * *

"Yeah, the bitch about it is, the Force doesn't allow for do-overs. I give considerably more of a fuck now, but can I change things? Nope."

* * *

 _Michelle was lost._

 _There was nothing but darkness around her, and the confusion, pain and betrayal from the crash had overwhelmed her mind, leaving her incapable of comprehending her new state of existence. She would have welcomed a return of the pain, if only to ground her. Anything would be better than spiraling like this, untethered and lost._

 _Something tugged at her._

 _It was faint, like the last echo of a half hearted effort. But it was something, and damn it that was enough._

 _Michelle seized hold of the tugging, and followed it, desperately grabbing at whatever it was. Anything. Anything would be better than the void she had been in before._

 _She wanted to live._

 _And she was so desperate for this, she effectively blew right past the source of the tugging, and right into where it had been trying to go._

' _Now that was a shock. When you're basically one with the Force, you don't expect to get blindsided like that.'_

 _In the ship, Michelle Ketros drew a long breath, before stilling, her face slack. And then she drew another breath. And another. And another._

 _The shock of a different soul entering had been enough to cause the change Ketros had vaguely wished for, and bring back the life Michelle had demanded. The body's organs returned to function, and the coma broke, like a computer restarting._

 _Despite this, the body slept on, the new soul settling into it, like putting on clothing that was just the wrong size, but could still fit. Awkward, but manageable._

 _And suddenly cut off from her body, Ketros flailed, the aftershock enough to nearly sever her tether to her body, stripping it down to a single link, fainter than a thread. One wrong move from Michelle, and Ketros would be lost forever._

 _Now considerably more alert, Ketros grabbed onto the thread with all her strength, and focused on building it up. If she got it strong enough… she might be able to get back where she belonged._

 _After all, there was nowhere left to go._

* * *

"So yeah. I tried that for a few months, and your dumb ass kept tearing down my progress. Finally figured out how to anchor the whole thing… I don't know, a few days ago? Time is… weird for me. But it's a good thing I got this shit locked down, because that stunt you pulled back there. Force. You would have literally destroyed me, _what the actual fuck were you thinking!?_ And why do you care so much about this kid you're working with, because I've been hearing some echoes of what you're planning, and thinking ahead by a decade is a bit much, right? You better not use my body for any weird shit, you hear- hey, what's wrong?" Ketros cut off her own rant, noticing her counterpart's lack of response.

Across from her, Michelle wasn't hearing a word, instead staring at the ground with wide eyes, hands shaking in her lap. Silent tears dripped down her face.

"I… I'm- I'm _dead_." She choked out, blank horror in her voice.

"Aw, shit. Um. Sorry. That… that was a bit much to show, wasn't it? Aw, fuck, I think I overdid it..."

"FUCK OFF!"

Ketros's head snapped up in shock at Michelle's sudden yell. She was glaring at Ketros, anger and misery on her face.

"Dude-"

"I didn't- I didn't want any of this! I- Leave me alone! No!"

The realization that she may have fucked up dawned on Ketros. Awkwardly, she attempted to reach out and comfort Michelle, and was met by being roughly shoved off by the angry teenager.

"Leave me ALONE!"

"O-okay. I think you need some time to process everything. I'm just… gonna back off a bit. Um. Sorry." Ketros stammered out awkwardly, before vanishing. With her leaving, the meditation fell apart, and Michelle was left sitting outside in the forest again.

It was night now, and the unfamiliar stars were shining above, with two moons hanging in the sky.

And really, that was the final straw. Because that drove home, for once and for all, that this was an alien planet. Michelle was in an alien dimension.

She couldn't go home.

There wasn't a home to go back to-

She was _dead._

Curling up on the (alien) forest floor, she buried her face in her knees, tears pouring in earnest as her frame was racked by sobs, interspaced with short, gasped breaths. And so, alone, Michelle grieved for herself.

She wanted to go home.

She… She-

She wanted her parents. She wanted her friends, her teachers, her cat, her older brother, her room, her bed, her home, she wanted to be home, _she wanted to go home_.

Were they mourning her? They had to be. She had died after all, in a horrific fashion. Had all of her friends survived the crash? Did they blame themselves for surviving, when she didn't? How long did it take the police to identify her, and tell her parents that their youngest child was dead?

They would never know what had really happened to her.

She spent a long time curled up on the forest floor, uncontrollable sobs rattling through her. After what seemed to be a few hours, the tears dried, and she lifted her head, slowly unfolding her limbs from the tight ball.

Michelle felt numb, all her grief and misery having been let out while she was sobbing. Now…

Now she just felt lonely.

It was probably a feeling she would have to get used to.

* * *

 **AN: Okay, so. After action report.**

 **That was a lot of stuff in italics, so let's go over what exactly went down there.**

 **Fact one: Michelle has been dead the whole time.**

 **During the car crash flashback in chapter 1, Michelle was dreaming of all the memories she had of the crash. Everything after that was repressed. When the car she was in was hit, she was briefly knocked out, and thrown from the vehicle while unconscious, ending up impaled on a sign post that was knocked around from the crash. It was a pretty massive pileup. She woke up, and noticed a mostly uninjured survivor calling for help. The survivor noticed Michelle, and was understandably horrified to realise that yup, jesus christ that kid is impaled and dying. Shock is a hell of a drug, so that's when Michelle realised she was impaled and dying. Paramedics arrived, took one look at the carnage and immediately slapped a black tag on Michelle. For those of you who don't know the triage system, in situations where there are too many casualties to be treated by all the paramedics, they run through the scene and do quick assessments of all the injured, tagging them for other paramedics to know how to proceed. Basically: Green means "completely fine, don't waste time treating". Yellow means "Kinda fucked up, but they'll hold. Focus on higher priorities". Red means "Severely wounded, needs immediate treatment if they're going to make it". And black, which Michelle got, means "This person is either dead, or treating them is unlikely to save their life. You're wasting your time here, focus on the people you can save. Do not linger". It's a cold, harsh bitch of a system, but it ensures the most people survive. Even if Michelle died in extreme distress. Note that as she was in severe shock, she wasn't registering that she had multiple horrific injuries from being thrown from the vehicle. Even if she had received medical attention, she would have almost definitely died before she could get to a hospital.**

 **So, fact two: Ketros is also dead.**

 **During the riot that ended her final mission, Ketros was struck in the head with a rock, and received a massive concussion. She managed to evade the mob, and get off planet, but as soon as her ship entered hyperspace, she passed out, and fell into a coma. And then started dying. As her organs were shutting down, the comatose Ketros exited her dying body, and became submerged in the Force, although she realised that she was dying. In a half-assed attempt to save herself, she basically threw her head back and told the Force to do whatever the fuck. It tried to pull her soul back into her body, but she wasn't overly determined to get in there. However, Michelle died extremely distressed, and the first few minutes of the afterlife were not a fun experience for her. That kid wanted to live, and she wanted it bad. So, the Force in all its vagueness, was sorta tugging every dead version of Michelle Ketros that was hanging around the void into her body. This only included Michelle and Ketros. Michelle locked the fuck on to the faint tug, and even though Ketros's pull was stronger, Michelle was more dead-set on following hers. So, Michelle blew past Ketros, and took up residence in her body. This was enough of a system shock, the body started back up again. Basically, they accidentally tried turning it off and on again and it worked. Ketros was still tethered to her former body, but the connection was extremely weak. Meanwhile, Michelle's soul settled into its new home, and is now immoveable. That kid's not coming out unless she's dead.**

 **Fact three: Ketros isn't human.**

 **Yeah, this is the one I've been playing real close to my chest. In all fairness, Michelle didn't know before now, and it was one of those things that her friends don't really talk about, and kinda assumed that she still knew her species, despite her 'amnesia'. Zinnia has no such excuse, and will be receiving an off screen ass kicking by Michelle for leaving out that little detail.**

 **So. On Earth, Michelle was (obviously) completely human. Ketros, on the other hand, was born in a sci-fi setting. She is not. She's half human, and half clawdite. I'm assuming the whole thing works kind of like the handful of hybrid species on Earth. Namely, it can happen, but it's extremely rare, and the offspring has some funky biology, and is non-viable. Hence the offhanded comment in chapter 1 about Michelle having some odd neurochemistry. She does. There are no complete records of anybody with her biology to work off of, so the healers spend a lot of time flying blind with her. Also, due to the whole non-viable thing, Michelle is completely sterile. Why hasn't she noticed she's not getting periods in the two months she's been there? Stress. She's been very stressed. It's slipped her mind completely. When you wake up in a different body in an alternate dimension, your first worry is not going to be 'hey is my period late?' That's not even going to be your second worry. Or your third. That's waaay down the list.**

 **Anyways, so Michelle can do limited shapeshifting. This means that she can alter her facial features, and somewhat her build. Once she's fully grown, she'll be able to change her height by two inches in either direction, although it will obviously throw off her balance. She can also alter her melanin levels, to change her skin tone. Any shifts she does will only hold for a maximum of an hour or two, before it drops, regardless of what she wants. Shifting is not easy for her, and is usually an extremely unpleasant sensation. Also, if anyone cares, Michelle's latinx. Her grandparents immigrated from Mexico to America, and her parents immigrated to Canada, where they had her. No, there will not be any jokes about her getting hit with sandals, or 'la chancla' or anything, because that is child abuse you are making jokes about a parent beating their child, and I'm white as hell so I don't get to joke about that shit. Michelle also will not be dropping random Spanish into her speech. She doesn't know a goddamn word of Spanish. She does know some spattered French, as it's a mandatory language course in Canada throughout elementary. I mean she's absolutely not fluent, but she does know a handful of words. Like, hello, goodbye, some simple phrases, and a bit of Quebecois slang. Pretty standard for a teenager in an anglophone province.**

 **There's actually a short little backstory as to Ketros's parents, which I've got planned out, but won't throw into the story proper… and won't go into here, as this authors note has dragged on longer than I meant it to. I'll tell you all on Tuesday.**

 **See you then!**

 **Also, as always, there's some more character designs on my blog, so go check it out. Gay-blue-space-rock, #holy shit it's my writing, you know the drill.**


	12. Part 1, Chapter 12: The New Age

**AN: Happy late Halloween! Anybody else go trick or treating? I mean yeah, I'm a high school senior, but consider this: Pillowcases of candy are awesome. I got a pillowcase of candy. It's awesome.**

 **Also, I went as Darth Vader, so this meant the mask could hide my clearly a teenager face, and the costume could make my height pass as just the intimidation factor. It was fun. So much candy.**

 **So the timeframe of this day on the mission is a bit awkward, and I think I'm just going to handwave it and hope nobody tries to piece together the exact timeline between the padawans narrative and the masters narrative. There's at least a few hours that are being fudged out on one end, but we're just going to ignore that, because I just posted chapter 11 and don't have this chapter done yet so we need to fucking motor now. Go go power rangers and all that.**

 **Also, I'd just like to give a shout out to Roddlz25, who I have been messaging with back and forth with about this story all weekend, and who has accidentally inspired me to get off my ass and finish the outline. So I can now reliably inform everyone that we're looking at a 7 part story. And this is one of the shorter parts. And we're going straight through to the Clone Wars.**

 **Basically, buckle up bitches because we're in for the long haul. And I've already decided who lives and who dies. And who gets to suffer. Hint: It's everyone. Everyone gets to suffer. It's great.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Part 1, Chapter 12: Welcome To The New Age

Michelle was startled out of her self-pity by the door of the speeder opening.

"You're kinda loud in Force right now." Anakin said bluntly, sitting down beside her.

"Sorry."

"Nah, it's fine. I mean, I got a few hours of sleep, I'm good. Probably wasn't going to get more, the bruises are really starting to ache now, so… yeah."

Michelle looked away, guilt rising in her again.

"Sorry."

"Nah, it's fine. You didn't know what the hell that guy was talking about. I mean, I did, but you didn't."

"...Wait what."

"Okay, so when we were going through Tero's stuff? I found some things. Y'know that Rellekan independence thing? Yeah. It's not as nice as it sounds. It's like… okay, I don't have a good metaphor here, but it's pretty horrifying. They want the planet to be completely closed - no offworld contact or visitors at all - and they're pretty radical about it. Tero's involved. Bastard's their leader. And their ideas for what to do with people from offworld is pretty twisted too. Like, the nicest possible outcome they're supporting is essentially enslaving them. It's bad. They've got a decent support backing from the people, but from what I saw, it looks like they're mostly running off propaganda and lies. One solid scandal and things could change awfully fast around here."

Michelle stared at him in surprise, before sighing.

"And- and you didn't think to tell them that before they beat the hell out of you!?"

"Nah. Fuck 'em."

"...Anakin Skywalker, you're either extremely brave or extremely stupid. Probably both. I can respect both."

He grinned at her, and they lapsed into a comfortable silence.

After a few minutes, Anakin shifted, and sighed.

"So… wanna talk?"

Michelle shifted in on herself, looking defensive.

"About what?" She asked, sounding suspicious.

"You want to talk about what happened back in the prison?"

"You mean you letting yourself get smacked around for really no reason? Cause seriously, I don't know how to explain that to your Master, and I feel like he would absolutely kill me if he decided it was my fault you got hurt-"

"I mean you messing with the dark side."

"...I didn't mean to."

"I'm not judging you or anything. You saved our lives."

"It- it felt like I was watching myself. From a distance. I… I couldn't control myself. It was fucked up. It fucked me up."

Anakin snorted.

"No, seriously, that was one of the worst things I'd ever felt. Don't use the dark side, okay? Never do it. Not worth it. In any circumstance." Michelle said firmly, giving him an intense look. The younger boy raised his eyebrows slightly in response, more in concern than doubt.

"Alright. No dark side for me."

"Fantastic. Ready to head out again?" She said, switching to a brighter tone and getting to her feet. She was fairly certain Anakin could see the blatant deflection, but she was so beyond the point of caring, he could go right ahead and silently call bullshit as much as he wanted. She had hit her emotional limit. She was done. Just. So done.

"I'm good if you're good?" Anakin said hesitantly, a slightly questioning tone to his voice, clearly unsure of if she was actually okay. That was fair, as Michelle wasn't completely certain either. But she had a lot of fucked up things dumped on her all at once, and the majority of them weren't meant to be shared.

Really, how would that conversation go? 'Hey Anakin, I'm actually dead and possessing the body of a dead alternate version of myself! Also, I know everything about your future, and it's supremely fucked! Hope you like losing limbs and burning alive!'

Yeah. That wasn't happening anytime soon. Or ever, if she could help it.

"Yeah, I'm good." She said, getting into the speeder and closing the door. Outside, she saw Anakin shrug slightly, before going around to the driver's side. Point to Michelle's emotional repression.

* * *

In their quarters, Coltin and Obi-Wan were having a late dinner.

Negotiations had ran later than expected, with Premier Tero being something of a dick. Coltin was about 80% certain it was on purpose.

Thank the Force Obi-Wan was also on the mission, as Coltin had spent the day rapidly remembering that oh _yeah,_ this is why he hadn't specialised in diplomacy. He fucking sucked at it. Fortunately, the younger man had a terrifying poker face, and the ability to talk circles around literally everyone. Coltin was more than happy to kick back and be very, very happy that he didn't have to debate with Obi-Wan Kenobi.

But despite the admittedly somewhat funny scene of Obi-Wan blatantly terrifying a room full of politicians, the fact remained that both of their padawans were still missing. Fortunately, Obi-Wan had been able to feel that Anakin was safe and returning, presumably with Michelle. So they hadn't needed to admit to the fact that they totally sent two teenagers to raise hell and break into a guy's house.

…Which sounded a lot more questionable when Coltin worded it like that.

Really, the council needed to stop sending him on diplomatic missions.

A clatter broke him out of his musings, and he looked up to see Obi-Wan looking surprised, the source of the clatter being his dropped fork.

"What's up?"

"Anakin's back." He said simply, immediately abandoning the meal in order to throw his robe on, moving quickly towards the door. Coltin immediately took off after him, not bothering to throw on a robe.

Because really, it had been a long, stressful day. And Coltin needed to see for himself that Michelle was alright before he could relax.

* * *

As the speeder pulled up the garage, Michelle noticed the two Jedi-like figures waiting for them.

"That… that's our masters waiting for us, isn't it." She deadpanned, already knowing the answer. Beside her, Anakin sighed, and slowly nodded.

"They're not going to be thrilled with our disappearing act." He muttered, although he continued heading in.

"Uh- hey. So. My little dark side trip. Can we… not mention that? To anyone? Ever? Please?" Michelle asked, giving Anakin a nervous look.

"What dark side trip? I have no memory of anything like that ever occurring. Nothing. At all." Anakin said, grinning at her. She blinked, before matching his with a relieved smile of her own.

"Thanks Anakin. You're a good friend."

And before things could go any further into feelings Michelle wasn't up for dealing with, she got out of the speeder.

"Michelle! Where have you been!?" Coltin cried out, immediately grabbing her in a hug, which she returned.

"Hi. Hi master. It's been a hell of a day." She mumbled against his shoulder. The hug was helping though. She probably should have tried hugging it out sooner.

"Anakin, are alright? How did you get so bruised?" Obi-Wan demanded, looking over his padawan with an expression of concern.

"We went to prison!"

"What?"

"It sucked. We broke out before they started cutting bits off though, so that's good."

"What!?"

"They were gonna cut my fingers off, it was awesome."

"WHAT!?"

"Wow. You two are never being left alone ever again." Coltin said, in the tone of someone who was trying to figure out exactly how much he needed to freak out.

"Agreed." Obi-Wan said firmly, still examining Anakin's bruises with worry. "Honestly Padawan, did you get beaten or something?"

"...So uh… you wanna tell him or should I?" Michelle stage-whispered, shooting Anakin a look. Obi-Wan went pale, but took a long breath in, clearly trying to stay calm.

"You were actually beaten. Lovely. The healers will be glad to see you again."

" _Master_ , I'm not injured enough for the healers…"

"Well, that's something they can decide for themselves when they see you."

As Obi-Wan fussed over his padawan, Coltin attempted to subtly check over Michelle as well. But 'subtle' was not a common word in Coltin's repertoire, and Michelle noticed, giving him a look.

"I'm not injured. Anakin was the one that got smacked around, not me."

"You sure?"

"I mean, I think I stubbed my toe at one point. And I might have chipped a nail. My suffering is as great as it is eternal." She deadpanned.

Coltin snorted, and ruffled her hair, earning an irritated noise from the teenager.

"Alright, sarcasms working, now I believe you're alright."

"Speaking of alright. So, we didn't find Knight Avaris. But, I'm pretty sure we found they guys that made her disappear?"

"Yeah, and they were real dicks." Anakin cut in, looking over at the two. Obi-Wan raised a silent eyebrow, in an impressive expression of judgement.

"...They were real assholes?"

The eyebrow raised higher.

"Gah, alright! They were real jerks, are you happy!"

"Always, Padawan."

"Yeah, and speaking of their dickishness- er, jerkiness, they're also pretty stupid. Because I think they handed us everything we need to deal with them."

The other three Jedi gave her looks ranging from curious to confused.

"...You know that thing someone mentioned about harming children being literally the most illegal thing on the planet?"

"Yeah, why- ohhh. Padawan, that is cold. I like it. Anakin, Obi-Wan, thoughts?"

Obi-Wan frowned, and rested a hand on his chin. Ironically, in his usual trademark 'thinking pose' from the Clone Wars. Michelle was impressed. Although it wouldn't really work until he grew a beard, which he really needed to hurry up and do.

"If Anakin agrees, then I have no problem."

"Wait, what are we talking about?"

"Gonna steal your shirt and wave your bruised self around to the public, start some noise about those Rellekkan Independence whatevers literally beating a child."

"Michelle, no. That's child exploitation, and they can easily deny that they did it. We gotta be more sneaky than that. Where did you say you were imprisoned?" Coltin asked, a slightly manic gleam in his eyes.

"...Coordinates should be in the landspeeder." Anakin offered.

"Was their surveillance in the prison?"

"Yeah, cameras all over."

"All I need. You kids stay here with Kenobi. I'm going to go knock heads together." Coltin said cheerfully, going for the landspeeder.

"Have fun storming the castle!" Michelle called, the Princess Bride quote just sort of happening. Anakin gave her an odd look.

"It's a prison, not a castle-"

"I know. I know. It- dumb joke, nevermind."

"Maybe we should have the healers check you for head wounds." Anakin muttered. She rolled her eyes.

"I… think I just need sleep right now. I'll be in our quarters. Sleeping the sleep of champions. Oh my god, real beds. Not concrete. Hello. Wake me up when shit starts inevitably going down." She said with a sigh, before leaving the garage, and entering the parliament building. Besides, Obi-Wan had a padawan to fuss over, and she didn't feel like getting in the way of that.

The rooms were up a few stories, which was irritating, as fatigue was finally catching up with her, the events of the last few hours hitting her all at once. She… she was not up to taking the stairs right now. Michelle was going to take the elevator like a bitch.

She found one, and pressed the button for the right floor, before leaning against the wall, eyes closed.

"Hold the elevator?" Someone called, and she pressed the button to do so without opening her eyes. The Force was very convenient sometimes, such as when it showed her what button to press when she couldn't be assed to open her eyes.

The man got in, and hit a button for a floor. The doors closed, and the elevator started to move.

"So. You've returned." A man said, a displeased tone to her voice. Michelle's eyes snapped open, and she looked over at the other passenger.

She was in the elevator with Premier Tero.

Shit.

"I take it I'll be receiving a call about your exploits in my prison soon?"

"Maybe not. The escape was pretty epic, I think they're still trying to move the rubble by now."

Tero rolled his eyes.

"Wonderful."

"So. What's your game anyways?"

"My 'game' as you so charmingly put it, is to keep Rellekka for Rellekkans."

"...What?"

"Joining the Republic would be a terrible idea. They would not be sending their best people. They would send aliens, foreigners. Illegal immigrants. Our beautiful planet would be filled with these… these criminals. Surely, as a Jedi, you can understand the urge to protect?"

Michelle gave him an incredulous stare.

"Are you fucking kidding me? That's literally every xenophobic strawman rhetoric ever. Like Brexit meets Hitler meets Trump. This is incredible. Space nazi's. I'm dealing with space nazi's. No - space racism. Spaceism."

"...You are a very strange person." Tero said, clearly confused by Michelle's tired rambling.

"That's completely fair. Oh, wow, hey, my floor. Cool, cool. Don't talk to me again, you're an ugly racist." Michelle said with blatantly false cheer, before leaving the elevator and walking down the hall, as the politician carried on to his destination.

Reaching the Jedi's quarters, she let herself in, and entered her room. Her duffle bag was quickly kicked off the bed, in favour of her faceplanting on it, head firmly shoved against a pillow. It felt great.

After a moment, she rolled over, in order to let herself breathe.

"...Spaceism." She muttered, a slightly amused grin on her face.

And then, not getting out of the bed, she kicked her shoes onto the floor, abandoned her belt, left her lightsaber on the bedside table, and wiggled under the blankets.

Michelle was going to have the sleep of champions. And there was not a force in existence that could stop her.

* * *

 **AN: #LetColtinRest2016**

 **So we've got some healing from the last chapter. Yaay. And yes, Tero did just accidentally quote Trump, and yes, Michelle called him the fuck out on it. Spaceism is a real problem.**

 **Okay so the backstory on Ketros's parents that I promised.**

 **Ketros's mother is a woman named Kyla Ketros, because I love me some alliteration. She had a falling out with her parents, and moved from her home planet to Couruscant when she was 19, and has not spoken to her family since. Due to being a broke teenager living in a lower part of the city, she had a difficult time finding/holding onto a job, and ended up unemployed and evicted from her shitty apartment relatively soon. After a bit of starving and shivering, she said fuck this and became a prostitute when she was 20. She soon had enough money to pay for an apartment that was a bit nicer than her old one, enough food, and various other things she needed while being able to put some aside. She was pretty damn good at her job, and decided that fuck it, it paid well and she liked it, she'd keep the job. When she was 27, she was hired for like an hour by a random Clawdite, who never told her his name, and left the planet soon after. Naturally, this was the one time the condom broke, and Kyla got pregnant. A few weeks later, she started realising something was wrong, got a pregnancy test, and then spent some time thinking over her options, and considering an abortion. She eventually checked her savings, realised she had a hell of a lot more than she had thought and would be able to support a child, and decided that yes, she'd keep the baby. She also decided she needed a more stable job if she was going to be a single mother, and that self-employment worked better for her. So, she bought and opened a bar, with a two bedroom apartment above it for her and her child to live in. She gave birth when she was 28, and the baby was named Michelle Ketros. Kyla was thrilled with motherhood, and adored her baby. Which was why it was such a bitch to come into Michelle's nursery one day and find her floating one of her toys. Kyla immediately called the Jedi, and a 13 month old Michelle was verified as Force sensitive, and brought to the temple. Kyla still owns her bar, and has not had any other children as of Displacement. Fun fact: The Jedi that verified Michelle's Force sensitivity and brought her to the temple? Qui-Gon Jinn. Forreal. This isn't relevant and never will be, it's just a fun fact. Literally all it means is he was in the Temple and not doing anything that day, so he was sent to go examine the baby, as part of the Councils ongoing scheme to Make Qui-Gon Move Past Xanatos Already. It did not work. Although baby Michelle enjoyed pulling his hair, so at least someone was happy.**

 **Anyways, one more chapter then Part 1 is over. Hard to believe, right?**

 **See you Friday!**


	13. Part 1, Chapter 13: Radioactive

**AN: Holy shit you guys. Last chapter of part one. We made it my dudes. We're out.**

 **And the full 13 chapters I had planned as well. We did it.**

 **So. First things first.**

 **I'd like to start with thanking everyone who's reviewed so far. As earlier mentioned, I am an ego gremlin, and literally live off feedback. It keeps me going, and is a large part of what motivates me to keep writing. Not just this story, but everything I write. So, Goanago, Roddlz25, Guest, Zeus Killer Productions, Hamers, Kat and Whitelion69: Thanks guys. You're the real MVP's.**

 **Secondly, thank you to everyone whose favourited and followed. Your actions feed the ego gremlin as well, and it is greatly appreciated.**

 **And finally, this chapter also marks another milestone: 2000 hits! Thanks you so much to everyone that has read and is continuing to read. I'd like to especially give a shout out to the handful of people who read chapters 1, 2 and 3, skipped 4, and then picked up again at 5. Because chapter 4 has less hits than any other chapter, and that has been confusing me for a very long time. You go guys. Fuck the system.**

 **Also, for anyone who didn't notice: I'm naming the chapters using line from songs. It'll be a different song every part, and trust me, I've put a lot more thought into picking them than you'd think. Part 1 has all been named for Radioactive by Imagine Dragons.**

 **So, all that's really left to say now is… Enjoy!**

* * *

Part 1, Chapter 13: Radioactive

After Coltin returned from the prison, things progressed quickly.

The security camera footage of Anakin being beaten was released to the public, and within the day there was a massive shifting of support, former nationalists abandoning their party and shifting support over to the liberal Prime Minister. It was nice knowing that Anakin and Michelle hadn't gone through all that shit for nothing.

And speaking of camera footage, Coltin had pulled Michelle aside as soon as they'd had a minute, and informed her that there was an unfortunate accident, and the footage of the garage during the escape had been obliterated. Whoops. Before she could reply, he had patted her on the shoulder, and informed here there was a lot of meditation in her future, then left.

Really, Michelle was lucky that she… no, that Ketros had such an understanding master. Well, he was Michelle's now. But she was trying not to think about that particular detail.

Denial might not be the healthiest coping method, but damn if it wasn't convenient.

And apart from the now-conveniently-destroyed footage of Michelle's little mental breakdown, Coltin had also found something else he hadn't been expecting in the prison.

Ineaus Avaris was beaten and half-starved, but she was still undeniably alive. And not overly thrilled with her captors.

And when news of her condition got to Couruscant, the Senate wasn't overly thrilled either.

The five Jedi were ordered to return to Couruscant, as a full Senate investigative committee would have to be sent to the planet to assess whether they were actually eligible to join the Republic. It was still up in the air on whether they could qualify. Michelle really didn't care.

Leaving was nice.

What was less nice was the fact that it was now five people in a tiny shuttle, and Knight Avaris needed to recover. Meaning, Obi-Wan and Coltin had their room, Ineaus got the Padawan's room, and Anakin and Michelle ended up crashing in the cargo bay. Because fuck it.

The trip back was uneventful, apart from the inevitable minor arguments that flared up from stepping on each other's metaphorical toes in the cramped ship. And, at one point, literally stepping on toes. In all fairness, Michelle _had_ apologized for that.

Upon reaching the Temple, waiting healers whisked Ineaus off for a medical evaluation, and Obi-Wan followed through on his earlier insistence to get Anakin looked over by a healer, escorting him off for the Halls of Healing.

And Michelle and Coltin went home.

She surprised herself by realising she had missed it.

* * *

The day after they had returned home, Michelle sat down for her earlier prescribed meditation. She'd gone into it with an unusual reluctance, compared to her normal enthusiasm for the process. Really, touching the Force at all was something she was usually down for.

But now, she really didn't want to meditate. Because meditating meant Ketros.

It took a bit longer than usual, but Michelle eventually got into the meditation. And, as expected, Ketros was waiting for her.

"I'm sorry. For showing you all that back on Rellekka. I… I was angry. You get it, right? I just died!" She said, not looking at Michelle.

"Yeah, I get it. Because I'm dead too. Remember that?"

"I mean- sure you're dead. But not dead dead. Like me. You've still got a life, even though it's… not technically yours. Y'know?"

Michelle sighed, also looking down.

"Yeah. I know. I'm sorry too. For accidentally stealing your life or whatever."

"Don't worry about it. Just… don't fuck it up?"

"I won't."

Before the moment could continue further, Michelle was snapped out of the meditation by a hand on her shoulder.

"Sup man. Master Andross is giving a report to the council with the other two knights that were on the mission. I let myself in." Zinnia said, grinning slightly. Michelle sighed.

"Zinnia… I need to tell you something. I- I got in contact with Ketros."

"Really? That's awesome! She have any ideas for getting you both back to where you belong?"

Michelle sighed.

"About that… I think we should take this somewhere more private. I've got a long story for you…"

* * *

"Shit. You're dead."

"Yeah."

"And Chelle- er, Ketros. She's dead too."

"Yeah."

"And you're possessing her dead body."

"Yeah."

"…That's fucked up."

Michelle snorted, grinning a bit despite herself.

"Yeah, tell me about it."

"And you know. Everything that's going to happen. Because of your original universe."

"Yup."

"…But you're not going to tell me, because…?"

"Because it would put you in danger, and it would really take just the most ridiculous amount of time."

Zinnia sighed, and flopped back onto the grass, resting a hand on her forehead.

"This is so fucked."

Michelle snickered, joining the other teenager in sprawling out on the grass.

They had gone to the garden where they had first talked, which was, as usual, empty. This was probably for the best, considering the story Michelle had just repeated. In full detail.

Well, almost full detail. Certain parts were omitted. Specifically the one about the dark side. Because that particular detail was staying with Michelle, Coltin and Anakin for the foreseeable future. There were some details that did not need addressing, and that just so happened to be one of them.

The pair lay in silence for a long moment,

"So… what are you going to do?" Zinnia asked quietly, staring up at the sky. Beside her, Michelle turned her head away, looking to the blades of grass.

"What do you mean?"

"Well… you're stuck here. No way home. Ever. And you know exactly what's going to happen here. What are you going to do?"

There was another silence, Michelle thinking it over, and Zinnia waiting for the answer.

"Well… I guess I'm going to have to un-fuck the timeline. I… I know who the sith lord is. I know what he's planning. And, as of right now, I'm not even on his radar. That's a pretty good position to start in. I can make at least a few moves before he catches on. And hey! He doesn't know that I know! That's something I'd like to hold onto for as long as possible."

Zinnia's mouth twitched, in a slightly amused grin.

"Yeah, I think not getting a sith lords attention is a pretty good way to start."

"…You know… this is something that's going to be difficult to pull off alone." Michelle started, a hesitant tone to her voice.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I… I could use someone who understands. And knows about everything. And is on my side."

"You want me to be that someone?"

"…I would appreciate it, yes."

"Alright. Michelle Ketros, I will help you un-fuck the universe, and take down a sith lord. It'll be fun! Just so long as I don't have to get the spotlight, that shit is all yours."

Michelle laughed, both in amusement and relief.

"Thank's Zinnia. I knew I could count on you."

"Hey. No problem. Just… promise me you won't die? Er, again, I mean. I don't want to have to light your pyre."

"Don't be ridiculous, Coltin would light my pyre."

"Michelle."

"And if he wasn't around, I think I could at least get Seha to do it. She's much more elegant than you. You'd probably do a sweet backflip with the fire, and while that would be a sick way to send me off, I don't think the inevitable army of mourners would appreciate it very much."

"Michelle."

"Just being honest. The backflip would be sweet though. And while we're on the subject, where I'm from, there's this thing called Viking funerals, where you put a person's dead body on a boat, then float it out and set it on fire. I want one of those. But like, in space. Take my body, slap it in the fanciest, most expensive ship you can find, load that bitch up with explosives, launch me into space, and blow me the fuck up. It'll be great. The aesthetics of it alone-"

" _Michelle_ "

"…Thanks for agreeing to help me kill a sith lord."

"Anytime buddy."

* * *

Meanwhile, with Obi-Wan, Coltin and Ineaus giving their reports, Anakin was equally unsupervised. And, like any young teenager, he took the opportunity to go and visit a friend.

Said friend was, of course, a certain Chancellor Palpatine.

"Oh, and there was another padawan on the mission! She's sixteen, her names Michelle Ketros, and she's so cool. Like, on the first day we were trading tips on how to properly hit people, it was great. Oh, and she used this one cool move when we were escaping! We got cornered by guards, and she threw her lightsaber behind them, then pulled it back towards her and activated it? It was so wizard, I've got to try it myself sometime."

Palpatine gave a warm smile.

"I'm glad you've made another friend, my boy."

"She's kinda weird, but mostly cool. Although she's a bit of a conspiracy theorist? Although I think she was joking with most of them. Oh, and we started talking about the Sith, she's got some… interesting theories."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Like, she was swearing up and down she's figured out who the Sith Lord is. She- Oh man. It was pretty funny. She's like, 99% convinced that the Sith Lord is secretly _you._ Isn't that ridiculous?"

Palpatine smiled. To almost all observers, it was a slightly amused smile, fitting to someone who'd just heard vaguely funny news about themselves.

But if one knew what they were looking for, and examined very closely, they would see a faint glimmer of rage in his eyes, the only hint of the true darkness within.

"How amusing."

* * *

 **AN: Aaaand the advantage returns to Palpatine. I'm just gonna leave you all sitting on that, and see you December the 2** **nd** **, alright? Alright. Great, fantastic.**

… **Except not quite.**

 **See, I've realised there's a few blanks to fill in, that I don't have room to fill in during the proper story, or it would be too jarring if I did try and shove it in. So, instead, I'll be doing interludes between parts, single chapter short stories that fill in a bit of a characters history. Interlude 1 will go up sometime in probably mid-November, so you can all look for that to bridge the gap. So, I'll see you all back for the interlude, and then on December 2** **nd** **. It'll be fun.**

 **Also, this is going to be a** _ **long**_ **story. Like, y'know how we got into 40k with part 1? So far the outlines looking at our end result being somewhere around 80 chapters, and that's probably an underestimation. Yeah, it's gonna be one of those fanfics. But very little filler, it's just a story that carried on a bit longer than expected. Whoops.**

 **Anyways. Good luck to my fellow NaNo writers, and I'll see you all again soon!**

 **Thanks for sticking with me so far!**


	14. Interlude: Sun Hasn't Died

**AN: Hello! Remember that thing I said about putting up interludes between parts? Here's the first one, starring our wonderful Coltin!**

 **Also haha how the fuck do you write Yoda's stupid dialogue. I love the little green troll, but at the same time I hate him so much for making me have to think over all his lines like, twice as hard. Asshole.**

 **So y'know how I'm currently in NaNo hell? I lied! Sort of. I started doing a NaNo novel, and then 5000 words in my brain went "OKAY BUT WHAT ABOUT DISPLACEMENT ISN'T THAT INFINITELY MORE INTERESTING TO YOU!?" and I was like oh shit you're right. So here I am. I changed my project to Displacement. I dunno if you're** _ **allowed**_ **to do it, but I'm doing it and good luck stopping me.**

 **We'll be sticking to the promised schedule, as I've got to edit any NaNo writing before posting it, and while part 2 is probably going to get finished, I'm gonna have to clean it up first. Although I might move the new chapter schedule up to 3 times a week, depending on how it goes? We'll say. It's a big might. Also, since I've been bouncing projects, I've also churned out a lot of obscure fanfiction that will never be posted, because there is no fandom to post it to. Fun times.**

 **Anyways, enough about me. We need to have a bit of a talk about Displacement. We'll have this talk at the bottom though. Nothings wrong, I just need to drop some information. But for now, enjoy!**

* * *

Interlude 1: Sun Hasn't Died

A padawan walked up the steps of the Temple, a duffle bag slung over his shoulder. He was clearly a senior padawan, with a strong build, and had let his traditional haircut grow out slightly, giving him a scruffy look.

"Padawan Andross. Get a haircut."

"Hello to you too Master Windu, it's so nice to see you again, I'm so glad you've kept your sunny disposition." Coltin deadpanned, in the tone of someone who had passed the point of giving a fuck. Mace Windu was not impressed.

"Manners, Padawan. I need your mission report write up, and then you've got the day to yourself."

Coltin dug a crumpled report out of his pocket, and offered it to Mace with an innocent smile. The council master sighed.

"Can you at least pretend to care. Just a bit."

"I'm trying my best."

"We're all so proud of you." Windu deadpanned, before turning, and going back into the temple with Coltin's report.

Alone, the young man sighed, hitched his bag up on his shoulder, and continued trudging into the temple.

The returning Padawan wasn't greeted by anyone as we walked through the temple, eventually making his way to his apartment. It was empty, as usual, with the muted feeling of a place that had been sitting abandoned for a while.

He went into his bedroom, and dropped the duffle bag on his bed. Moving in a mechanical fashion, he grabbed some clean clothing from his closet, and headed into the bathroom. A quick shower later, and the tired man had left his apartment, and was heading towards the halls of healing.

When he arrived, the attendant at the front desk looked up, and returned to their book as he walked through the atrium, and into the halls, already knowing exactly where he was going.

In the long term care area, he walked purposely through the halls, and eventually got to the correct room, and entered quietly.

The man inside was laying on the bed, hooked up to several life support machines. He was human, and around a hundred and fifty, and it was showing, with his frail appearance, and noticeable failing health. Despite this, he still managed a warm smile at Coltin's entrance.

"Hello Padawan. I felt you getting back earlier. How was your mission?" He croaked out, as Coltin sat down in a chair at the bedside.

"It was alright. A bit tiring. I might have had to knock a few heads together to get it done in the end, but it did get done. If the council objects, they can take it up with my lightsaber." He said, grinning a bit. The master gave a wheezy chuckle.

"Coltin, you should mind your temper."

"I know, I know. I don't know why I keep getting sent out on solo missions, I'd rather stay in the temple with you."

The master frowned.

"Padawan, I'm the one who's recommending you for solo missions to the council. Just because I can't be much of a teacher for you anymore doesn't mean you shouldn't be getting training. It's a good thing you're a hands on learner, or else we'd be in some trouble, huh?"

Coltin frowned.

"I wouldn't mind staying here." Coltin muttered, sounding a bit sulky.

"Well, you don't need to worry about that for long." His master said, the smile returning.

"...What's that mean?"

"I've recommended you for the trials."

Coltin froze, an expression of panic slowly blooming on his face.

"You seem to be taking this well." The master said lightly, clearly amused.

"Wha- No. No, no, no, what? How. Just- how. I'm only twenty. I am definitely not knight material. My concept of diplomacy is 'hit them until they shut up' that does not sound like a functional adult. I don't even know how to file taxes!"

"You're a Jedi, you don't need to file taxes."

"That's not the point. The point is, I am not a stable human being. Why are we knighting me? That's a terrible idea!"

"Take it up with the council next Monday. Because that's when you're doing your trial."

Coltin made an incoherent panicked squeaking sound, bringing another laugh out of his master. Said laugh turned into a harsh cough, which knocked Coltin out of his panic long enough to reach out and stabilize the elderly man.

A healer entered, a purple twilek.

"Master Evon, time for- oh, hello Padawan Andross. When did you get back?"

"About an hour ago, Laleh. How's my master been?"

"The same as usual. I'm sorry Coltin, but I'm afraid I have to throw you out now. You know how it is. I'll see you back tomorrow morning I'm guessing?"

"You know me too well. I- we'll talk about this later Master, alright?"

"Prepare for your trials Padawan." Master Evon ordered, before Coltin was waved out by Laleh.

Out in the hall, Coltin sighed, before leaving once more.

* * *

"...Cannot believe this went through." Coltin grumbled, shifting awkwardly in place.

"Shut up and go in the chamber Andross." Windu said with a sigh. It probably had something to do with the fact that Coltin had been keeping up a commentary like that the entire way there, but frankly, he didn't feel like being judged. He was too busy having a contained panic attack.

"Be calm, you should." Yoda said, clearly amused at Coltin's complaining.

"I'm just saying, it's a little ridiculous that I'm taking the trials when I don't even think I'm ready-"

"Believes in you, your master does. Have faith in that."

Coltin paused for a long moment, before letting out an impressively bitchy sigh.

"Force damn it, you're right."

And he went into the chamber.

Two hours passed, before he staggered back out again.

"Wow. That- that sure happened. That was a thing. And it happened. Damn." He said blankly, sounding like he was still attempting to process the entirety of the events.

"Congratulations Coltin." Evon rasped, leaning on a cane and beaming. Coltin gave him a shocked look.

"Master! I thought the healers weren't letting you get out of bed anymore?"

"That may be true, but I'm not going to let some healer stop me from seeing my last padawan knighted."

To his annoyance, Coltin found himself tearing up.

"Master, don't say that-"

"Death is a natural part of life my Padawan. And regardless of how long I have left, it's long since been apparent that I'm in no fit shape to train another padawan. I had enough trouble keeping up with you nine years ago, I certainly don't want to try that again in my condition! Now then, I believe someone needs a braid cut?"

Eyes still wet with tears, Coltin kneeled, brushing his long padawan braid off his shoulder to hang in front of him.

Master Evon's lightsaber hummed, and the smell of burnt hair filled the chamber, Coltin's padawan braid being neatly severed.

"Welcome to the Jedi Order, Knight Coltin Andross. Defend the light in the galaxy well." Master Evon rasped, smiling warmly. Coltin beamed back.

* * *

That evening, he moved himself out of the lonely master-padawan quarters, and into the equally lonely single apartment he had been assigned as a new knight. It took him a while to get to sleep in the unfamiliar bedroom, but he managed after a bit, dropping into a deep sleep.

He was woken from it at around two in the morning.

For a very long moment after being woken up, Coltin just lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling with a muted, horrible understanding.

The bond between him and his master had just broken.

Not unravelled, not detached, not unhooked, but broken. Broken in the way it could only be if one end died.

The ringing of his comm did not surprise him.

" _Pada- sorry, Knight Andross? Sorry to wake you at this hour, but… Master Evon passed away in his sleep a few minutes ago. Thought you deserved to know first."_

"I… I know, I felt it. Thank you." He managed to say, before ending the call.

His master had been old, even by Jedi standards. It wasn't a surprise that he had passed into the Force.

But to pass on literally hours after Coltin was knighted…

"He was holding on to knight me." He whispered to himself, feeling the words ring true.

It took a while for him to stop crying.

* * *

The funeral was a crowded affair.

Master Evon had been a friendly, personable man, and a well-respected master, leading to a great deal of admirers and acquaintances attending. It helped that over the course of his life, the man had trained ten other padawans, with Coltin making eleven. For some reason, the other ten had come to the conclusion that Coltin deserved the honor of lighting his pyre, due to him being the last padawan knighted. It did make sense…

But Coltin didn't feel like he deserved it.

But insecurity wasn't very fitting on a Jedi, so he tried to ignore the feeling, and do his duty to his master.

Coltin's hands shook slightly while lighting the pyre, but he was fairly certain nobody noticed. Fortunately, he managed to keep a straight face throughout, and not lose composure, as was proper.

He'd never given much of a shit about protocol and etiquette, but his master had. The least Coltin could do was respect that.

* * *

Being a knight wasn't that much different from being a padawan, Coltin found. Or, not that much different from being a senior padawan.

Mind you, it was probably different for Coltin. He was well aware that his padawan-hood had been… odd, by anyone's standards. He knew it wasn't normal for senior padawans to go on mostly solo missions. Technically speaking, he was the most over qualified knight to hit the Temple in a long time.

Not that he felt like that, of course.

But if he was being completely honest with himself, he already knew what his real problem was.

Coltin was lonely.

It was something he was more than used to. He had been a late arrival to the Temple, not found until he was six years old. By that point, all his crechemates had long since formed their own friendships and bonds. Coltin was the outsider just by merit of getting there last, on top of the divide between him and the other younglings over remembering and dearly missing his parents.

It was hard for a shy six year old to make friends with that kind of gap. Sure, he played with the other children, but he never really felt like anything more than the extra party, only allowed in out of pity. Having to invite himself into every game and project got old, fast. When he stopped inviting himself, they didn't come ask him to re-join them. Which was fine.

He'd met Master Evon when he was ten. The man had been visiting the crèche, and noticed the one human boy sitting alone, and decided to go over to talk to him. That in of itself had been shocking for the young Coltin, who wasn't used to being reached out to by… well, anybody. A friendship had formed between the old master and the young boy, and on Coltin's eleventh birthday, Evon asked him to be his Padawan.

The downsides to having an elderly master was that your master didn't have any particularly close friends either. Often, a master would have close friends with padawans of their own, and the masters would see each other so much the padawans became friends by default. But, as Coltin quickly learned, his masters life was a relatively solitary one as well, with all ten of his previous padawans having chosen to work mostly outside of the Temple, and with Master Evon choosing not to keep anyone too close to him.

But Coltin had been fine with that. Loneliness was easier with someone else.

But now Evon was dead, and Coltin was alone again.

He handled it in the most mature, Jedi-like manner possible. Which is to say, he threw himself into his work, and took increasingly long assignments in the outer rim, eventually reaching the point where he was back in the Temple a few times a year, spending the rest of it out on assignments.

As one does.

About five years after he was knighted, things changed.

It was during one of his rare temple visits, when the Council had flat out ordered him to take a week of downtime before heading out again. He was commemorating this with a victory nap in one of the more secluded meditation gardens.

Just flopping out in the sun felt nice. Coltin really needed to make the time to do it more often. And he needed to stop wearing sleeves. His arms were pretty nice looking from all the lightsaber swinging he had been doing. Really, it was almost a crime to cover up his fantastic arm muscles.

His musing on the nature of sleeves and muscles was interrupted by someone else entering the garden, and heading straight towards Coltin. He didn't need to look. He knew who his visitor was.

"Lonely, you have been." Yoda said plainly, sitting down in the garden beside Coltin. The man in question sighed, and continued to stare up at the sky, from his position lying on the ground.

"I'm trying to meditate right now."

"Chosen an interesting pose, you have."

"Meditation, nap, whatever. Same difference really. I'm tired, go away. And take your weird theories on my social life with you."

"Help, it will not, to avoid the matter."

"Whose avoiding things? The only thing I'm avoiding right now is some quality napping, and that's really more on you than on me. For shame."

"Considered, have you, taking a padawan?"

Coltin made a choking noise, and flailed his way into a sitting position, eyes wide with alarm.

"I am not getting a fucking kid, and you can't make me!" He yelped out. Yoda chuckled in response, causing Coltin's expression of mild panic to shift into irritation.

"You're fucking with me right now, right? That's what's happening here?"

"Meant, my advice is." Yoda said, his usual demeanor of calm patience returning, although amusement was still clear in his eyes. The bastard.

"Okay then. I'm nope-ing right out of this conversation then. Nope. Nope, nope, nope. Fuck this shit I'm out. Thanks for the advice that I will not be taking Master Yoda, good talk, let's never do this again. Have a nice day." Coltin said firmly, getting to his feet and fleeing the garden before the old master could respond. Or just start laughing again.

And if Coltin got the hell out of there at a sprint, well, that was nobody's business but his own damn it.

A few minutes of panicked running later, and Coltin decided he needed to calm the fuck down. And find somewhere better to hide out.

He'd been trying to nap in the garden, so it was the logical conclusion that he would go and try to pick up that nap again. If Yoda wanted to continue their horrible conversation with horrible assumptions, he would probably go looking at Coltin's apartment. So, best for him not to head there for a few hours.

And honestly, after the brisk run, he was too awake to get to sleep anytime soon. Adrenaline was a bitch like that.

Although Coltin's blind sprint had taken him near the salles…

Fuck it. He'd go and work on some kata's. Maybe someone would want a sparring partner.

* * *

Due to it being the afternoon, most Jedi were busy elsewhere, most kids in classes, and most adults preferring to use the sleepy time of the day to meditate. Or, in Coltin's case, nap. And in Yoda's case, harass perfectly innocent knights who were trying to nap, and suggest absolutely ridiculous things that they would not be doing under any circumstances.

Ugh. Now Coltin didn't even want to spar with anyone. He just wanted to work on some kata's. Alone.

He headed a bit of a ways into the salles, figuring that the rooms near the front would be more likely to be occupied. Instead, he let himself into a salle near the middle, a smaller one.

…And was surprised to find it occupied.

Two kids were sparring each other, an older one with a padawan braid, and a younger one without. The girl with the padawan braid was pale, probably an albino human, and was wielding a white lightsaber with impressive dexterity for her age. She was handily kicking the ass of the younger child, who seemed to be having the time of her life getting beaten in a spar.

The door closed behind Coltin, and both children froze, turning to stare at him with a deer in the headlights look.

"Shouldn't you two be in classes right now?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. The youngling's look of panic increased, before the older one placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled, clearly attempting sincerity. It didn't quite work.

"I was injured on my last mission. I'm on medical leave until the end of the week." She said, clearly hoping that would be enough to make him go away.

Unfortunately, Coltin was feeling like being a bit of a dick.

"If you're on medical leave, then you're not cleared to be sparring. And that doesn't explain your young friend here, who should definitely be in class right now.

The brown haired kid scowled, kicking the ground with her shoe.

"I was assisting in Seha's… um, what's it called again?"

"Physical therapy?"

"Yeah! That thing! So we're supposed to be here. Yeah."

Coltin was not impressed.

"I really doubt that a youngling is a certified physical therapist. You want to try not lying to the knight?"

The two kids exchanged looks.

"Think he's like Zinnia?" The youngling muttered, failing amusingly in her attempt at subtlety.

"Maybe we're just bad liars." Seha replied, sounding resigned.

"It's the latter. You're also bad at whispering."

"Ugh! Fine, so Seha's on medical leave, and she might be breaking the rules to go and spar. And I might be skipping my class right now to join her, because… friendship. And I mean, normally Zinnia's the one that does sparring, but she's got her Advanced Coding class right now, and if anyone tried to make her skip it she'd strangle them with her bare hands, honestly, so I didn't want to risk that, and I didn't want Seha to try and work out on her own, cause then if she did mess up her injury then nobody would be around to help her, and I'll stop talking now." The youngling rambled, a slightly guilty look on her face. Beside her, the padawan pressed a hand to her forehead, and let out a very long sigh.

"Michelle, why did you rat us out?"

"…I dunno. I figured we'd be better off if we just confessed now, that's all." The younger one said, shrugging slightly. Coltin surprised himself by cracking a smile, the entire situation relatively amusing.

"Alright. Uh – Seha, right? Right. You go do… whatever it is you're supposed to be doing on medical leave. No strenuous activity. Meditate or something. Honestly, the healers assign these things for a reason, you shouldn't ignore it. And… Michelle. What class do you have right now?"

She scowled down at the floor as Seha beat a dignified retreat from the room.

"I dunno. What time is it?"

"Around 2."

"Ah. Then, right now I've got… oh, ew. I've got Republic Law. I hate Republic Law. It's just… so _boring_. Like, let me knock some heads together, problem solved. We didn't need all the dang fuss."

"Ugh, I know. I hate diplomacy missions. Give me a blaster shoot out any day of the week." Coltin commiserated, earning a grin from the kid.

"Well… I mean, if you hated that stupid class too, then I think it would be a bit hypocritical of you to subject me to it as well." Michelle said carefully, although there was an amused light to her eyes.

"Oh really?"

"Yup. In fact, I think that the only truly moral solution you can make here is to spar with me."

"Is that so?"

She ignited the training saber in her hands, and gave Coltin a challenging grin.

* * *

The duel was short, yet fun. Despite her young age, Michelle made for an entertaining opponent, lack of experience being made up for by creativity, tending for unusual moves. Not to mention someone had clearly taught her how to use her height, as she made a few neat escapes by diving under Coltin's reach. All in all, the kid was tough. Coltin approved.

She took her defeat in good spirits as well, clearly just happy to have lasted as long as she did against a knight. Really, for a youngling, she was pretty impressive.

Maybe…

Maybe Yoda's suggestion hadn't been completely ridiculous after all.

"So, I'm Coltin Andross. How old did you say you were?"

Michelle's eyes widened involuntarily, a look of extreme interest making itself known on her face.

"Just turned twelve last month."

"…Any masters lined up for you?"

"Nah, they're all too busy fangirling over my friend Zinnia."

"…Oh, yeah, I've heard about that. She's the kid that can-"

"Yeah, that's her. Guess the rest of us aren't too interesting in comparison."

Coltin hesitated for a moment. Really, this was a large decision. He should take time to think about it. Just flinging himself in head first to a long commitment was a horrible idea in every sense of the word.

But really, wasn't flinging himself head first into insane things his speciality? Not to mention the only thing Coltin could read off the Force for the decision was an overwhelming feeling of _rightness_ , like this was something he was meant to do.

Fuck it. Head first into the abyss he went.

"Well, you're pretty interesting to me. Want to be a padawan?"

* * *

So Coltin didn't exactly think the whole thing through. Whatever. That just meant a bit of work for him to deal with.

It didn't take too long to track down a Council member, and inform them that this twelve year old was now Coltin's padawan. Admittedly, Master Plo's reaction had basically boiled down to 'when the hell did you find the time to do this', but Coltin could live with the knowledge that the Council was judging his impulsive nature. Like they hadn't realised that about him already.

Then there had been arranging for Michelle to get her long hair trimmed into the necessary short padawan cut (damn dress codes), getting Coltin set up with a master-padawan apartment, moving Michelle out of the crèche, moving them both into the new apartment…

Needless to say, the two weren't able to sit down and grab dinner until around nine at night.

"So. This was a hell of a day." Michelle said, pushing the instant noodles around on her plate. "Also, I really hope you can cook better than this normally, or I'm going to have to revolt."

"You're so mean. That stung padawan. Y'know, words can hurt kid. But yes, I do know how to cook, I'm just too tired to bother tonight."

She nodded in understanding.

"Yeah, I get you. At least I was excused for skipping class today. Normally, I would have been in so much trouble, but this was considered a good excuse. So. This whole padawan thing is showing perks already."

Coltin snorted, before looking around at the various boxes cluttering the apartment.

"I… have more stuff than I thought I did. We're gonna be unpacking tomorrow."

"Sweet. Can we buy me some more pillows at some point? I need like, a mountain. It's how I am. I kept getting in trouble in the crèche for stealing pillows, but I'm a high maintenance pillow person. I don't care if it's against the code, I need a nest or something."

"Sounds doable. You need different types of pillows too?"

"…Yes, actually I do."

"We'll swing by a store for that stuff in the morning then. Or, whenever we're done unpacking tomorrow."

The rest of the meal was spent in a comfortable silence, before the two headed off to bed.

Coltin's new bedroom felt weirdly empty, and had the same uninhabited feel that places usually did when they were knew, before Coltin's Force signature had a chance to sink into the room. Leave a Jedi living somewhere long enough, and that just tended to happen.

Still, despite the uncomfortable blankness, he felt… oddly better.

Less lonely.

…Maybe Yoda had been right about Coltin needing a padawan.

"God _damn_ it." He muttered to himself, before rolling over and pulling the blanket up.

Despite that, he still fell asleep with a smile.

* * *

 **AN: #LetColtinRest2016.**

 **Honestly, I might as well just call this interlude "Coltin's adventures in social anxiety and crippling depression". That's relatable right there.**

 **So, Zinnia gets a mentioned appearance only here, and with some stuff foreshadowed. Don't forget that kids. We'll be covering her in the interlude after part 2. And speaking of part 2, I'll see you all back for it on December the 2** **nd** **. It'll be a fun one.**

 **And yes, I bitched out of showing Coltin's trials on purpose. Trust me, we're spending a few chapters inside that chamber eventually. Just... not for a while yet. Didn't want to spoil their effect.**

 **Okay so. That talk about Displacement I said we needed to have.**

 **So, as you all have probably realised by now, I am a golem constructed out of clay, spite, and an endless flood of ideas for stories. And ever since Michelle thought the subject over back in chapter 3, I've been thinking about it as well.**

 **What if the Displacement plot had happened in the Empire era?**

 **Well, the first thing I realised is that Michelle would never survive. She's a middle class teenager from a loving family, she just doesn't have the skills or the mindset to be a fugitive from a massive Empire, especially with the initial disorientation she would have needed to work through, probably alone. So after I'd figured that out, I then started wondering. If Michelle couldn't survive… who could?**

 **Things kind of took off from there.**

 **So yeah, there's going to be a spin-off of Displacement, set in the era of the Original Trilogy. And you remember that stuff about timelines that I've explained my take on before? In this spinoff, we'll be running off the original canon timeline, in that Michelle's interdimensional shenanigans never happened, and Padawan Ketros & Friends lived out their natural lives. And, in most cases, deaths. Because y'know. Between Geonosis, Clone Wars and Order 66, come Imperial era of the original timeline, the only ones left are Zinnia and Neria. What role they play in the story, I'll leave in suspense. Let's just say it'll be wild and leave it at that.**

 **Anyways, the only downside is that this spin off, while in the planning stage, is going to utilise some important plot points that come up in Displacement. Like, to the degree that no matter how early I start writing it, I can't post until Part 4, Chapter 5 has gone up. That's the bare minimum at which I won't be horribly spoiling everything. Sooo… yeah. Just thought I'd bring that to everyone's attention.**

 **Also, I don't have a working title for this spinoff, and putting 'Displacement' into a thesaurus online didn't help. If anyone's got better ideas for a title, I'm all ears. So far I've either been calling it "Displacement Rebels" or "Displacement V.2". It's… it's a work in progress.**

 **Anyways, it starts in 7BBY, and the protagonist/victim that gets an interdimensional transplant is a girl named Andy. It's a nickname. V.2 is a bit different in design from Displacement, in that Displacement, ironically enough, is structured more like Rebels, in that there's a core cast that's in every episode, along with a single, very clear protagonist. V.2 is more like Clone Wars, in that while there's a definite protagonist, there's a large supporting cast, and other people get the spotlight quite often. If that makes sense.**

 **Displacement is mostly Michelle's shadow war against a single threat that only she knows about (Palpatine). V.2 is Andy fighting against a massive threat that literally everybody knows about, and has an entire fucking Rebellion fighting along with her. Andy just so happens to know the future. There's going to be some variety in the cast.**

 **Anyways, enough of me ranting about something we won't see until mid to late 2017 at the earliest. At the latest, it might get dropped early 2018. I dunno. We'll find out at the time.**

 **See you all on December 2** **nd** **!**


	15. Part 2, Chapter 1: Gospel

**AN: Holy shit you guys, we are back! Our regular schedule can resume!**

 **I've missed this, really I have.**

 **So, welcome to Part 2, or as I like to call it, Michelle's Adventures In Having Feelings, Pissing Off Sith Lords, And Are You Kidding Me Teenage Drama Bullshit In Space Really Just Really.**

 **You can understand why we've just condensed it down to the name 'Part 2'.**

 **So while this part is shorter, ringing in at 11 chapters, plot wise, it runs a bit longer, and I think we're going to be looking at some longer chapters. The break between 2 and 3 is needed, in that it's another goddamn time skip, so yeah.**

 **Also, I'd just like to celebrate another milestone here: Interlude 1 brought us up to 2.5 thousand hits in total! Thanks to all the fucking champions who've stuck it out this long! Hope you're okay with a long haul, because let me tell you, the end is NOT in sight yet. Should be fun!**

 **Anyways… Enjoy!**

* * *

Part 2, Chapter 1: Gospel

Michelle was woken up by someone pounding on her door.

"Come on Padawan! Get up! Move your ass!" Coltin called cheerfully, before resuming the unholy racket.

"Fuck! I'm up, what do you want!?" She yelled back, attempting to untangle herself from the blankets. The night before she had gotten caught up reading her textbook on Galactic History, and had absolutely forgotten that sleep was a thing she needed until about…

Wow. Four hours ago.

Okay, so it was a ridiculously nerdy thing to lose sleep for. If she had been back on Earth, staying up almost all night to read a textbook would have gotten her immediately thrown into like, a thousand lockers. But here, every history textbook read like a science fiction novel, and Michelle was down for that shit. Considering the fact that she had almost memorized pretty much the entire plot of Star Wars.

…Which might explain why she'd never had a girlfriend.

Tired mental tangents aside, if Coltin didn't let her go back to sleep, Michelle was going to be _pissed_.

"You're going to be late to your classes. Y'know, those things you have? And are starting again? Todays the first day back to a full schedule, no more lazing around with just two classes in the afternoon every other day."

"Shit fuck." She blurted out, sitting up in bed with wide, alarmed eyes. Suddenly, she was considerably more awake.

Five minutes later, an amused Coltin was watching Michelle attempting to pour cereal for her breakfast. The fact that she was also attempting to get dressed at the same time made this more than a little difficult.

"Y'know, it would probably go better if you put the layers on in order." He commented, nursing a cup of coffee and obviously enjoying her eternal suffering. "I think the undershirt should be the first step.

"I don't tell you how to live your life. Fuck! Why do Jedi wear so many damn layers!? Who needs an undershirt all the damn time, it's stupid! Just wear a normal T-shirt, the galaxy will find a way to carry on! And tabards. Tabards are stupid, why do we all have them in some form? It's stupid!"

"No, please, tell us how you really feel."

"And tunics. Why the fuck are we wearing tunics and robes? What is this, the goddamn renaissance? Jeans, tank top, hoodie, bam, you're dressed. This is so unnecessary."

"Take it up with the council kiddo. Also, where does this sudden hatred of Jedi style come from?"

Somehow, Michelle managed to finish shrugging on her tunic, before angrily slamming her tabard in a pile on the table.

"It comes from I'm going to be late for my classes because I can't figure out how to put my damn clothes on!"

"…You've got like, half an hour before you need to leave."

"…Oh."

"Why don't you sit down and have breakfast? Then we can navigate the terrifying world of putting on tabards."

"…Fight me."

* * *

The benefit of being in a different universe is that everything qualifies as interesting. Really, when you go from being a high school student in Canada to being a fucking Jedi in the Star Wars universe, not much counts as mundane anymore.

Like classes. Normally, Michelle would sit in the back of most of her classes, and usually end up doodling or sleeping through them. As one does. But for her first day of full classes, she ended up staying awake for the full day, despite her lack of sleep the night before. This was probably for the best, as Jedi seemed to be held to a much higher educational standard than a public school student. Padawans were put into classes according to their skill, not their age. Michelle was in the same basic Mechanics class as Isaac, while Anakin and Neria shared the same college level class. Michelle had been moved down a level from what Ketros had for lightsaber techniques, which made perfect sense, while Seha had long since graduated out of the classes entirely, and was instead focusing her time on learning both a two handed style, and a double bladed style. Michelle was fairly certain she was overcompensating for _something_ , although damned if she knew what.

The sudden, heavy course load would have been enough to send Michelle right over the edge into a mental breakdown in her old universe, but that had been the questionably effective public school system. The Jedi Order had some different standards for its students.

The best part is, while there were definitely expectations, there wasn't a pressure to reach a certain level at a certain time. While there were clear average ages in each class, there were multiple students in every class that were older or younger than the standard. If Michelle struggled in a class, she was free to repeat it.

It was nice.

None of her teachers were irritated by her two month absence from classes, only welcoming her back and sitting down to go over any parts of her review that she had been confused about.

Although her math was still fucking awful. Awful enough that she was moved out of Ketros's Advanced Astrophysics class and put into Root Mathematics. Which, from what she could tell, was the equivalent of being removed from a university level Astrophysics class and put into a high school math class.

Accurate.

In all fairness, she'd had all enthusiasm for math sucked out of her sometime around grade eight, and her ability had suffered in response.

She'd always known the public school system was bullshit.

On the bright side, some of Ketros's electives were fun, although Michelle's personal favourite of the bunch was slightly ironic.

Her favourite was Theoretical Universal Physics. Which seemed to translate into multiverse theory.

Needless to say, she fucking _nailed_ that class. Especially considering it was less about equations, and more about debating theories. And Michelle had what was probably the best perspective on the subject _ever_.

Her final project was absolutely going to be a lengthy thesis on the existence of alternate dimensions, and the possibility for vague connections between those dimensions.

And it had prompted her to think about her own situation. Because… she was in an alternate dimension, which existed in her dimension as just a story. Was it possible that facts and events could slip through the walls of dimensions, and just be mistaken as story idea's to people who were inherently sensitive to that sort of thing? Maybe all stories were glimpses into other universes?

What if someone had picked up on Michelle's story, through the thin points between dimensions?

Well, hopefully nobody was writing Michelle's story. The constant breaks for Michelle to wax philosophically inside her head would be fucking obnoxious.

Well, either way the theory would make a bitchin' thesis. Being an interdimensional hobo was probably cheating on the matter on some level, but she'd like to see anybody prove it.

* * *

At the end of the week, Michelle went for dinner down in the commissary, instead of with Coltin in their apartment.

It wasn't that different from a normal cafeteria, except for the food seeming nicer, and the room feeling more peaceful. It wasn't meant as a place to eat as fast as possible before getting back to work, it was meant to be a place to unwind, and meet with friends. Michelle could respect that.

And speaking of meeting.

She placed her tray down at a table, and sat down, joining its single occupant.

"So, how have you been?" She asked, smiling at the other diner. He returned the gesture.

"Eh, y'know. The usual." Anakin replied, shifting his tray back slightly to make more room for hers.

"Okay, so, I've got the best story. So I was in my Lightsaber Techniques class with Neria - er, I think you two share a Mechanic's class?"

"...She's the one that's about your age, right? Yeah, I know her. Or, I don't _know_ her, but yeah, I know who you're talking about."

"Yeah, her. So we were in Lightsaber Techniques, and we were set to doing some kata's from Ataru, this super cool flip, forget what it's called, but you like, flip, and mid flip you switch which hand has your lightsaber? It's cool. So, we're practicing just the flip at first - er, well, not really a flip, more like a midair somersault but whatever - and Neria decides that she's totally got the flip down, and she's going to try to pull of the lightsaber hand switch. With just the hilt, obviously, she's not stupid enough to try it activated right away. So she jumps, does the somersault, tries to do the switch-"

"Michelle Ketros if you finish that story I will end you." Neria said firmly, sitting down beside Michelle and slamming her tray a bit harder on the table than necessary.

"No, keep going, I need to hear how this ends. I can probably hold Neria back from killing you on the spot, although I advise keeping one eye open tonight." Zinnia said gleefully, sitting down as well. Neria shot her a death glare, which was cheerfully ignored.

"Uh, I would also like to hear the end of this story." Anakin added, sounding slightly awkward with the sudden introduction of two people he didn't really know.

"So she tries to do the switch, but she fumbles the hilt, drops it on the mat-"

"You're dead to me if you finish that sentence!" Neria threatened. Michelle was not deterred.

"And then she manages to land with a foot on the hilt, sending her flat on her back. It was incredible."

Anakin and Zinnia both snickered, while Neria gave an annoyed sound.

"There was some grease on my hands from Mechanics! I didn't have the time to wash up before Lightsaber Techniques! Really, the fact that I almost made the hand off is impressive by itself. That grease is murder on the grip."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night."

"It's a legitimate problem! Skywalker, back me up on this. Not enough time to clean up leads to engine grease on hand at unfortunate moments, right?"

"Oh yeah, all the time." Anakin said with an emphatic nod. Neria gave a 'so there' gesture, and raised her eyebrows at Michelle, who rolled her eyes in response.

"I'm sorry, all I'm hearing is 'can't hold on to a damn lightsaber'."

Neria scowled.

"You're a mean person, and I don't like you. We are no longer friends." She said firmly, getting up and moving to the other side of the table, prompting laughter from Michelle and Zinnia.

"Neria doesn't love us anymore. Let's run off and elope to spite her." Zinnia suggested, grinning at Michelle.

"Yeah, you have fun with that. Use protection or whatever. Skywalker's my friend now. At least Anakin understands basic mechanics, unlike you damn heathens. What's your project right now? Aren't you trying to fix that totaled ship?"

Anakin perked up immediately, eyes lighting up.

"Yeah! It's been fighting me, but I think I should have it in flyable condition soon. I've been having some trouble getting the comm relays working again, and I really don't want to just replace the whole thing, but the damage is not fun to fix. I'm thinking there's a break in the FTL transmitter, not looking forward to getting that thing out to investigate."

Neria frowned slightly, forehead furrowing in thought.

"Have you checked the Tesi cable's yet?"

"Yeah, one of them was stripped, I replaced it. Pretty sure the problems in the FTL transmitter."

"Makes sense. Well, doing a proper check by yourself is gonna be an unwieldy nightmare. I'm free right now, if you want an extra pair of hands, and Force knows I'm always down to get my hands in an FTL transmitter."

"Sweet! Let's go! Oh, and did some mods on the hyperspace compensator, should make for a smoother ride, but I'd feel better if another pair of eyes checked it over…"

Michelle and Zinnia watched in silent bemusement as Anakin and Neria both got up and quickly left the commissary, talking excitedly back and forth in confusing engineering terms.

"…They totally forgot to eat." Zinnia observed after they had left.

"Eh, that's a problem for their masters to deal with. Besides, skipped meals aside, I'm very happy with this." Michelle said, grinning a bit.

"Meaning…?"

"Neria and Anakin are going to run off, and probably spend the next few hours elbow deep in machinery. That's bonding stuff right there. Swear on my life, this time tomorrow, Anakin and Neria are gonna be friends, if not instant besties. Am I not a genius?"

"You expanded their social circles. Good job." Zinnia deadpanned, in the tone of someone who really didn't follow what Michelle was so pleased about. Fortunately, the teenager in question was happy to enlighten her.

"It's… not something to explain here, but Anakin needs more friends. He's a major player, and I'd like to make sure he's got a solid support network before shit hits the fan, y'know? I mean, don't get me wrong, I do like him, and that kid is definitely my friend. But I also know that a lot of people have a vested interest in his mental stability, and I would like to make sure that he's in the best situation possible. …Why are you looking at me like that?"

Zinnia was giving Michelle a bemused look, grinning slightly with raised eyebrows.

"Nothing. Just, you're putting a lot of weight on one kid."

"I'm setting up for when he's considerably older."

"Ah. This is about that 'Chosen One' crap, isn't it? Never bought that prophecy stuff myself. Destiny is what you make of it."

"Eh, I'm not sure if I buy into it either… but multiple important parties do believe it, and believe it's referring to Anakin. So like it or not, he's going to end up in the center of the action. Might as well prepare him for it, y'know?"

"Huh." Zinnia said quietly, looking pensive. "A shit ton of people expecting incredible things out of him, that he might not want to, or even be able to deliver on. I can relate."

"…What do you mean-"

"Maybe I'll try to bond with the kid too. I think we could get along pretty well. Anyways, nice seeing you, but I've gotta get going. Also, I think someone else wants to talk with you. Later!"

Zinnia left quickly, leaving a confused Michelle sitting alone at the table.

"…The hell was that about?" She muttered, clearly confused.

Before Michelle could puzzle over it any more, she was joined once again, this time by a man who sat down across from her. His smile was polite, yet clearly intended to be diplomatic, and the look in his eyes held a subtle hint of steel.

"Hello Padawan Ketros. I was wondering if we could talk." Obi-Wan said, diplomatic mask firmly in place.

Michelle had the sudden feeling that she had made a terrible mistake.

* * *

 **AN: Aw shit, Michelle's in trouble. Also, Anakin's getting friends! And more blatant hinting at Zinnia's Issues. I'm going to be foreshadowing this with the subtlety of a fucking anvil, and you had better believe it.**

 **All that technobabble between Anakin and Neria was absolutely bullshit, although I meant for the FTL transmitter to be the thing that lets the communications be in instant time across the galaxy, Tesi cables connect it to the comm relay, and the hyperdrive compensator is what keeps the ship from being ripped apart while traveling through hyperspace. I've thought this shit out.**

 **Michelle's plan for right now is absolutely to absorb Anakin into her friend group. For lack of a better term, we'll call it Operation Friendship Really IS Magic!**

 **...Okay we probably won't call it that.**

 **And please remember, Michelle doesn't actually know that Palpatine know's that she knows yet. It's a bit confusing right now.**

 **Also, good news! Y'know how I couldn't think of a fucking title for the sequel/spinoff for Displacement? Thought of one! It's gonna be called Division. And while the titles of both stories were made up off the top of my head because they sounded good, I can bullshit with the best of them, and I came up with some good justifications for how both titles relate to their separate narratives and to each other.**

 **Oh, and on a random note, I totally just remembered. Y'know how Michelle's a very old OC of mine that's gotten a massive overhaul for Displacement? Well, I'd forgotten before now, because I don't think I ever really wrote it down, but in her original incarnation, Michelle was basically intended to tag along with my eternal fave Obi-Wan, and be his bestie forever. So, naturally, she was originally close to his age. And, because turns out I've always loved the angst, she was originally the padawan of Dooku, who ditched her near the end of her apprenticeship after Qui-Gon's death, causing the Council to go "yeah okay fuck it close enough" and knight her.**

 **That's not how Michelle's knighting goes, obviously, and she's not going to meet Dooku until the Clone Wars are up and running, and he's never going to leave the 'antagonist' territory here. I just thought that was an interesting tidbit and felt like sharing, that's all.**

 **Anyways, welcome back! Please leave reviews, as it helps my fundamentally flawed psyche carry on another day.**


	16. Part 2, Chapter 2: For The Fallen Ones

**AN: Hello! Time for Obi-Wan and Michelle to have Words. It's not as ominous as it sounds. Probably.**

 **Also, guess what? We've hit another milestone! Chapter 1 now has 1000 hits! And overall we're over 3000! Can I get a fuck yeah? CAUSE FUCK YEAH!**

 **And oh my god has anyone else managed to go see Moana yet? Because you need to. It's so beautiful, I cried at least twice. Probably more. I was not expecting the David Bowie style song in the middle there, but it was amazing. Also HOOLY SHIT LIN MANUEL MIRANDA. CHRISTOPHER JACKSON. MY HAMILSONS. I actually didn't know Christopher Jackson was in Moana and I didn't realise it until the Chief started singing and my brain automatically was like 'HERE COMES THE GENERAL RISE UP'. I really enjoy musicals does it show at all.**

 **Alright, enough happy flailing. Enjoy!**

* * *

Part 2, Chapter 2: For the Fallen Ones

"Er, okay? What are we talking about?" Michelle said hesitantly, fairly certain that the spectre of imminent death was now hanging over her. "Because I don't know if I'd be good conversation in most areas. Except multiverse theory, I can talk about that all day. But if that's not what you're here for, then I've got nothing, I mean really-"

"I'd like to speak with you about my padawan. Specifically, what exactly your interest in him is."

"Oh my god. Is this the shovel talk? Am I getting the shovel talk? I am, aren't I. That's actually what's happening right now. Amazing. What the hell. How is this my life? I can't even tell if this is an all new low, or a high point, that's how much I'm freaking out right now."

"Please stay on topic, if it's not too much trouble."

"Right. Topic. Anakin. Shit."

Michelle took a moment to take a deep breath, and gather her thoughts.

This… was not an ideal situation. Because either she was brutally honest with Obi-Wan, or she blatantly lied to his face. Both were very unappealing. If he caught her lying, she wouldn't be able to default to the truth, and honestly she did _not_ need a suspicious Obi-Wan Kenobi keeping an eye on her. That was pretty much the last thing she wanted. Because it was pretty much a guarantee that Palpatine was keeping an eye on him, so if he was keeping an eye on her, then she would make the Sith's radar. Which was something she'd rather avoid for a while. The fact that Sideous didn't know about her knowing was probably the best advantage possible, and one she'd like to hold onto.

Telling the truth was also not a good idea.

...How would that even go? 'Oh yes Master Kenobi, I'm actually an interdimensional hobo, and I've accidentally possessed the dead body of my alternate self. Never actually had amnesia! Oh, and I know exactly how the future's going to turn out, because this shit was just a sci fi series in my world. The Chancellor's a Sith Lord, and Anakin's eventually going to snap, go dark side, and slaughter hundreds of children and infants before you give him a good lava bath and doom him to spend forever as a weird burnt up toaster.'

Yeah. No.

How had Zinnia been able to catch Michelle lying about who she was? Damn, it would be nice to know where she went wrong while trying to bluff. Maybe she could fix whatever it was?

But probably not right now.

Fuck it, time to dive in head first. All in, balls out.

...Did she seriously just motivate herself by quoting Nickleback? God, she almost deserved to die.

"Um, I dunno what you mean by intentions or anything. He's cool, we get along well, and I'm not complaining about making another friend. The fact that he's getting along with my other friends already is just a plus, I guess? I don't know. He seems kinda lonely. And there's also the whole amnesia thing I've got, so like, the Temple doesn't feel like where I've lived for most of my life? It's like I just got here a few months ago. And Anakin says he got to the temple super late, and started as a padawan right away, so he pretty much gets what I'm dealing with. Uh, if you're worried I'm going to hurt him or anything, I won't. ...And I'm really sorry that he got beaten up on my watch, I really should have found a way out of that mess before it got that far."

Obi-Wan watched her nervous ramble with a neutral face, clearly studying her tone and expressions. And hopefully not reading her too well, as she was mostly lying through her teeth.

Then again, she was talking to Obi-Wan 'Darth Vader killed Anakin Skywalker' Kenobi. He didn't have any room to judge when it came to playing it fast and loose with the truth.

Whatever it was he saw, it seemed to be satisfactory, as he nodded, polite blank mask shifting slightly into something slightly warmer. A good sign?

"That's good to know. I worry about Anakin, and I worry about some of the company he chooses to keep. Unfortunately, I've realised that if Anakin decides he wants to be friends with someone, there's little I can do to prevent him. My best option is to just handle things at the source. Well, my apologies for interrupting your meal with a somewhat rude interrogation. Have a nice evening Padawan Ketros."

Obi-Wan stood to leave.

"Wait! Uh, if I had qualified as questionable company… what would you have done?" Michelle asked, mostly out of curiosity.

Obi-Wan gave a small, serene smile.

"I would have thought of something."

Michelle resisted the urge to shiver. She probably shouldn't have baited one of the most badass Jedi in the order. That was on her. Whoops.

"I'm sure you would have. You scary fucking man." She muttered under her breath as he walked away.

...Yeah, she was just going to go to bed before any more surprises caught up with her.

And she would get Zinnia to teach her how to lie better. Just in case.

* * *

Michelle entered the secluded garden, stopping slightly at the sight of the girl already there, sprawled out on the grass.

"Hey, you said you wanted to meet me here after classes. What's up?" Zinnia said, looking up at Michelle's entrance and grinning. She smiled back, and joined her friend on the ground, kicking her shoes off for good measure.

"Hey. So, um, I kinda need to talk to you about something. You remember the first time we met?"

"Yeah? When we were kids, you mistook me for Neria, I thought you were crazy, then you ran off and dragged Neria over to prove you weren't crazy, and figured out that me 'n her were twins. Why?"

Michelle blinked, confused.

"Wow, that's some Parent Trap bullshit right there."

"Parent- what?"

"Uh, nothing, nothing. Dumb joke, never mind. But um, no, not when you meant Ketros, I mean when you met _me_."

Zinnia froze slightly, before letting out an awkward laugh.

"Sorry. Forgot for a moment. Uh, long day and all, But yeah, in this garden, I held a lightsaber to your neck and you freaked out. Good times. Good times."

"Yeah, and you held me at lightsaber point because you figured out I was lying about who I was."

"...Look, it's been a long day, and I'm not really feeling up to 'guess the mystery' right now. Can you just tell me where this is going?"

"How could you tell I was lying? What was the tell? I realized that it's probably not a good thing for me to have any tics that makes it clear I'm lying, so I'd like to fix them."

Zinnia stared for a long moment, before she burst out laughing. Which, admittedly, kind of stung.

"Hey, I'm not that bad of a liar! ...Am I?"

"N-No, no, it's- it's not that, it's just- sorry, oh Force, it has been so long since that has been a question I've had to answer. Oookay. Wow. If I hadn't already figured out you didn't belong here, that question would have done it."

"Can you stop fucking with me and answer the question?" Michelle snapped, starting to get irritated with Zinnia blowing her off.

"Sorry, sorry. Okay. How much do you know about Force abilities?"

"Er- they're like… things you do with the Force, aren't they? LIke, Force pushes and stuff?"

"Not exactly. Force abilities refers to inherent abilities someone has with the Force. Like, they're born with it. Luck of the draw. They're pretty rare, and it's even rarer to have one that aren't weirdly specific. It's stuff like just knowing what objects you need to be carrying and when, or always being able to find water, or being able to commune with animals, or, say, being a perfect lie detector."

"...Holy shit." Michelle said, eyes wide.

"I know when I'm being lied to. Every time. Can't be fooled. Drove my creche masters insane, before we figured out that there was a reason I was reliably calling bullshit every time. So, when you said you had amnesia, I knew you were lying. And during our wander around the temple, I kept up a good flow of rambling, and when you responded to it I could tell exactly what the truth was. So, once I hit the conclusion that you… weren't you, I brought you here, made a last check, and went for the kill. Er, metaphorically speaking, of course. Ha ha."

"Holy SHIT. You are so OP."

"...Ohpee? What?"

"OP. Means overpowered, sorry, slang. But that's such a badass ability, oh my god."

"I mean, for what it's worth, it's not like it's a perfect skill. Like, if someone gives me wrong information, but they don't know it's wrong? It's going to register as true. And if someone's mixing in half-truths with full truths, or claiming they've done something they're literally about to do? Then I get confused. Nothing's an out-right lie, so it doesn't hit my radar. Fucking annoying. Oh, and once it was confirmed that it was actually an ability that I had? Holy fuck. I could barely get a fucking minute of peace, every other Jedi in this place wanted a special shiny padawan with special shiny abilities. Horrible. I almost went to the agri corps just out of spite, it was so frustrating. Lucky I found a master I clicked with though, so that was nice. Er- sorry, that got off topic a bit. Rambly. I, um. Didn't have the best time of things as a kid. You know how it is." Zinnia said awkwardly, clearly slightly embarrased about her short rant.

"No, no, it's fine. I get it. I had a rough childhood too. Gay Latinx kid in a rural small town in goddamn Alberta, well you do the math how that went." Michelle said, grinning a bit. Zinnia frowned.

"You lost me there."

"Um. Okay, so Latinx is the gender neutral term for someone whose family is from a certain region back where I'm from, and almost all of us have brown skin. Latinx people originate from around the equator, or down on the southern half of the planet, but my grandparents immigrated up to the north half of the hemisphere, and my parents immigrated even more north. Mostly white people. The region where I was born and grew up in is called Alberta, which is the worst area up north for discrimination. Small town made it even worse. I got beat up a lot as a kid."

"Wait, wait wait. You got beaten up… for having darker skin?" Zinnia asked, sounding incredulous.

"Yup."

"...That's fucked up."

"Yeah. I mean, it's not all bad. When I was pulled out of my dimension, things seemed to be looking up? I mean yeah, there was this obvious dictator named Trump trying to get one of the most powerful positions in the world, but I got pulled out like, two months before the voting. But he had like, a thousand scandals and was lagging in the polls, so he probably crashed and burned. Wish I could have seen it though." Michelle said wistfully, smiling slightly. Zinnia snorted.

"So… your world doesn't have Jedi? Or the Force or anything?"

"Nope. Hell of a shock when I woke up here, let me tell you."

"…What's it like? Growing up in a family?"

"Well…"

* * *

Michelle and Zinnia ended up spending hours in the garden, trading stories and talking about each other's lives. It was… nice.

Also, Michelle was now completely certain that she had the worst crush. Just the worst. Which might end up being a problem at some point. Although, her almost kiss with Zinnia on her birthday meant that she had a chance? Maybe. Odds were up there that it was reciprocated.

On the downside, they spent hours talking in the garden. After both had had a long day.

Needless to say, they fell asleep on each other.

Leading to the current situation of Michelle making a valiant attempt to sneak into her and Coltin's apartment at two in the morning.

There was the minor setback of Coltin apparently having fallen asleep on the couch waiting up for her, but she could probably get away with slipping into her room, and swearing up and down in the morning that she just got in early and he must not have seen her.

She was _so good_ at teenage rebellion.

Michelle continued to be excellent at it, until she focused so hard on walking softly, she ended up tripping over the coffee table.

Not her finest moment.

For a brief second, she lay on the carpet, hoping the thud hadn't been enough to wake up Coltin-

The lights clicked on.

Shit.

"I can explain." Michelle attempted, removing her face from the carpet.

"Padawan, are you trying to kill me?"

"…No?"

"Because I am going to have a fucking heart attack. I've been worried sick! You weren't answering your comm, I couldn't find you, you didn't respond through the Force, I had no idea where you were! Not okay! What do you have to say for yourself!?"

Michelle winced slightly at the upset tone to Coltin's voice. She… she had fucked up.

"I forgot to take my comm off silent after class. And… um, I was with Zinnia, in a garden. We were talking, and we just kinda… fell asleep. She's probably getting this lecture right now as well. I didn't mean to? Sorry."

Coltin let out a long sigh, and ran a hand through his hair.

"Don't worry about it kid. Just… call next time? I worry about you."

"…Sorry for worrying you. I'll remember to call next time."

"Good. Now go to bed. I'll be dragging you up for some early morning meditation tomorrow. Our focus will be 'why you shouldn't alarm your already jumpy master'. I think it's going to be beneficial for you!"

"Yeah… asshole."

"Love you too padawan. Night!"

"Night."

* * *

 **AN: #LETCOLTINREST2016**

 **And for the record, if Ketros had pulled that stunt, he would have just dragged her out of bed in the morning for early meditation, given a short lecture on not staying out late without permission, and then dropped the matter. Michelle gets the waiting up worried lecture because as far as Coltin knows, his padawan almost died like two months ago, still doesn't have her memory back, and he is privately anxious that she'll relapse or something. She won't, it's just something he worries about. It'll go away once he's had some time. Coltin is a concerned father pass it on.**

 **Also yeah, Michelle exited her universe on September 21, 2016, and woke up two days later at the start of Displacement (aka the day that Chapter 1 went up). So… she never had to see the shitstorm apocalypse of Trump winning.**

 **I think we can all agree, Michelle's better off than the rest of us.**

 **Don't worry, she'll stop making Trump jokes after a while. I mean, right now she's only two months out of Earth. That shit's still relevant to her. After this part there's going to be a sharp drop in reference jokes and whatnot, because the timeskip between part 2 and 3 means that Michelle's had years with no access to Earth culture, so her pool of references that only she understands is greatly decreased, due to just forgetting or not caring anymore. Any Earth jokes that remain will either be genuinely funny even missing context, or just the sort of thing that will stick in the head for years anyways.**

 **And we finally reveal what Zinnia's thing is! She's literally a perfect lie detector.**

 **Honestly, I meant to save that reveal for like, the second interlude, but she pushed me to do it earlier. I'm cool with it tho. Also, some build up for the relationship I think everyone has called now. Don't worry, we're are definitely addressing it this part. That's like, the main conflict.**

 **Well, that and the fact that Palpatine is absolutely trying to kill Michelle right now. The two plotlines come together, don't worry.**

 **So anyways, last two chapters have been a nice little breather of Michelle getting settled into her new situation, in that she now knows she's in for the long haul, and can never go home. Cheerful! Don't worry, we'll cut the shit soon, we've got a plot to get into.**

 **And, as always, please leave reviews. I've been listening to a lot of emo rock music from my junior high angst phase lately, and I live in fear of the day my enjoyment of it is no longer just based in nostalgia. Don't push me to that point. Help me readers. You're my only hope.**


	17. Part 2, Chapter 3: Permanent Slumbers

**AN: Hello again! So, this chapters the last of our introspective stuff. Enough feelings, we have a plot to get to damn it.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Part 2, Chapter 3: Permanent Slumbers

According to most of the fanfiction Michelle had read, meditating was supposed to be pretty much a chore to padawans, something done reluctantly and almost never unless ordered. But on the other hand, Michelle had never really given a damn for what she was supposed to be doing, and was more than happy to meditate whenever she had a spare moment.

Maybe it was the fact that she had spent the first fifteen years of her life without being able to touch the Force. So even after two months, there was still that high of her suddenly waking up with sweet magical powers.

Well, it sucked that she had to die to get them, and that she would never go home or see her family again. But ignoring that completely minor detail that totally wasn't bothering her at all, it was still pretty sweet.

The dead thing also meant that for her, meditation wasn't really 'quietly contemplating life and choices', it was much closer to going to see someone who wasn't quite a friend yet, but certainly had the potential to be one.

It did help that Ketros and Michelle had a lot of things in common. Alternate versions of the same person and all.

"Okay, wait, so it took Coltin fifteen minutes to decide to take you as a padawan!?"

"Yup. Master claims the Force told him too, but I'm pretty sure he was just tired and didn't want to bother with thinking it over and then finding me again to confirm it. So, he just went for it on the spot. Alright, now your turn. What did you have at your school again? I still can't really follow."

Michelle grinned at Ketros, the two sitting in their shared mindscape.

"Well, we didn't have it as like an official thing or anything, it was just a student thing. We called it the pump house, 'cause it did something with water? I don't know. Nobody ever went inside, you just met up outside before school, or at lunch, or after school."

"And then you fought."

"And then we fought. It was awesome. 'Pump house at 3:30' basically translated to 'come fucking fight me you little bitch' at my school, it was very efficient. 'Cause if you tried to fight in the halls, you'd be fucked. I mean, there was a damn police officer in the building at all times, just not practical to fight inside. Although one time I saw two guys get in an argument, and the first one tried to throw the other one off the second floor. That was an interesting day. And sometimes kids from our rival school would come over at lunch and try to mess kids up in the hall, some football rivalry or something. It was fun. Not me, obviously, I'm not dumb. I saved my beatdowns for the pump house. Is what I would say if I wasn't a total fucking loser that didn't fight. Did deck a kid in class one time for being an asshole." Michelle said cheerfully, smiling nostalgically and ignoring the horrified padawan beside her.

"That… sounds awful. Were all schools like that?"

"Well the public ones were at least. Actually, my school was pretty good, all things considering. Though one time a kid brought a lighter shaped like a gun, and there was a bit of a panic, but other than that. Fun times."

"...Oh Force, I never thought I'd be glad that I didn't end up in your life. But I am. I'm very happy. I would not want to do that."

"Yeah, you wouldn't have enjoyed it at all. ...My death probably shook them up a bit. I mean, I was just a grade ten, but still. I bet they put up a memorial and everything. Oh, and my drama class would have been in trouble. I mean, lowest level drama class and all, but our production was going to go up in a week, and I didn't have an understudy or someone double cast. Would have been a scramble to fill my place. And my family was planning a ski trip in Febuary, dunno if they would have still gone."

Ketros watched in quiet sympathy as Michelle rambled on, becoming increasingly melancholy.

"...Everything okay?" Ketros attempted, looking worried. Michelle shrugged.

"I don't know. I just… I'm just starting to realise how much I left behind. It's a lot to process, and the only people I can really talk to about it is… well, you and Zinnia. Not exactly a firm support group. And you've got even more issues with the whole dying thing, and I'm starting to get the distinct feeling that Zinnia's got some kind of baggage that's out of my pay grade. I… I don't know. I've been thinking about telling Coltin. He seems solid, maybe he could help-"

"No. No, no, no, absolutely not, Coltin does not get to know what's happened to me- er, us. Don't tell him." Ketros said firmly, giving Michelle a stern look.

"Why?"

"Okay. He's freaked out over you right now, because he think you're me, and thinks that he almost lost us, and that there's at least permanent damage caused by the memory loss. How do you think he'll handle it if you tell him that nah, his padawan actually DID die, he's been dealing with the ghost of her alternate self the whole time? He's not going to take it well! You are not allowed to do that to him. I'm putting my foot down."

"...Alright, fair point. So, people we're not telling aside, what should we do about the information we have? Because this is my dimension now, and I am not fucking dealing with Order 66. Not doing it. I've got enough trauma as is, thank you very much."

"Order 66?"

"Genocide against the Jedi Order. In a day they… we, went from around ten thousand strong to having a couple dozen Jedi scattered through the galaxy, and most of them in hiding."

"Oh Force. That's not allowed to happen."

"You're goddamn right it's not. We've got a while though. Like, nine years on my estimate. I know the sequence of events leading up to it. After the Battle of Couruscant, if Obi-Wan is sent off to kill Grievous, that's when we need to grab Anakin and his wife, then get the fuck away from Couruscant."

"...Okay, a few questions here. Whose Grievous, what's the Battle of Couruscant, and since when has Skywalker been married?"

"Eh, give him six-odd years. Even though he has terrible moves. I mean really? Sand? That's your pickup line? Fucking sand?"

"...Right. So… I would like it if my- well, our- people weren't massacred. If that's not too much trouble to focus on right now."

"Yeah, I know. There's a lot of buildup though. Plenty of places for us to casually undermine Palpatine's attempts to kill us all. ...Palpatine's the Sith Lord by the way."

"...Honestly, there's been so many bombshells lately I'm not even surprised anymore. But this is definitely above our level. You should take this to Yoda." Ketros said, looking serious. Michelle pulled a face.

"I don't know. That's not really something that you can just… explain. I haven't even seen Yoda yet, I don't even know how to begin a conversation like that. I'm not doing it."

"So what, we just do nothing? Sit around with our thumbs in our asses until Palpatine kills us all?"

"No, of course not. We plan, and we go through those plans with Zinnia. I want to be careful with the information I have, once I tell someone they're bound to never forget. This is galaxy changing stuff. I'd rather play it safe, if it's all the same to you."

"It's really not, but I guess you're in charge." Ketros sighed, sounding irritated.

"Damn straight I am. And I say I'm not going to Yoda."

* * *

"This is a terrible idea and I can't believe you've talked me into it." Michelle muttered under her breath. It was probably for the best that the hallway she was in was mostly empty, otherwise she'd look absolutely insane, wandering around and talking to herself. Even by Jedi standards, that was weird.

Besides, she wasn't talking to herself. She was talking to the ghost of her dead alternate universe self whose not-dead body she was possessing.

...No, wait, that was weirder. Shit.

' _Hush. This is good for you. Stop your whining.'_ Ketros scolded from in their head.

The amount of time Michelle had spent meditating and speaking with her other self had turned out to be a good idea, as their connection had gotten stronger. Strong enough for them to be able to hear each other at all times.

Which was fucking annoying.

' _Heard that.'_

"Quiet you."

" _Here. This is where you want to be."_ Ketros said quietly, before giving the mental impression of gesturing at the door in front of Michelle. She pulled a face, lingering slightly.

"Look, I'm really- I dunno. It's weird, I guess. Maybe I could… not do this? And just go back home and read things and be sad?"

' _Bitch get in the rom.'_

"Jesus, alright!"

Michelle pressed the doorbell, and waited for the door to be opened. It promptly was.

Ketros didn't say a word, but Michelle could feel the slight smugness. The bitch.

The room was small, and seemed cozy. Meditation cushions were on the floor, and the curtains were all pulled down with the lights dimmed. Personally, Michelle would have used the room to nap, not meditate, but to each their own.

"Troubled, you are?" Yoda asked, giving her an inscrutable look.

"Um- yeah, sort of, I guess. I was told that I should go to you for advice."

"Still lost, your memories are?"

"Yeah. I… I don't think they're ever coming back. Not really anyways. I don't know, it's just… weird. It feels like I don't belong here, kind of. Everybody's been here their whole lives. They know exactly what they're doing, and I… don't? I don't know. It's weird." Michelle said awkwardly, sitting down in the chair across from the old Jedi master. Which was weird in of itself, because holy shit she was getting counselling from Yoda. Fucking Yoda. How was this her life?

"A disconnection, you feel. Understandable. Lost, you are?"

"I… Yeah. I'm just lost, I guess." Michelle said quietly, drawing her legs up onto the chair, and looking down at her clasped hands.

"If lost you are, then gone your old path is. Find a new one, you must. Your own way, you will find."

"How do I find it?"

"Hmph! Your own path it is. Find it alone, you must."

"What if… what if my path isn't the Jedi? Not- not that I'm planning on leaving right now. Just- just in case. As a maybe. I'm still thinking over my options. Considering everything."

"Prefer it if you stayed with us, I would, young one. But do what is right for you, you should."

"...Alright. Don't worry, I'm not leaving anytime soon. And… thank you."

* * *

' _Master Yoda helped, didn't he.'_ Ketros said smugly, while Michelle was slowly walking back to her and Coltin's apartment.

"I- yes. Yes he did. Shut up." Michelle muttered, words ringing slightly in the empty hall.

' _So… you are staying in the Order, right?'_

"Yeah, I am. I need to learn how to work with… well, all of this, and how to get by in the galaxy and all. If the person whose name I don't feel confident enough to say right now catches on to us, I might need to bail, but we'll save that for an emergency situation. For now at least, this is who I'll be."

' _Then… well, since nobody else is really going to know to say it… Welcome to the Jedi Order. Serve the light well uphold the Force. Or, whatever it is I'm supposed to say, I don't really know.'_

"...Thanks Ketros."

' _Anytime Michelle._ '

* * *

"Giving up and going to Yoda for counseling… well, if you weren't a Jedi before, you are one now. I think everybody's had to pull that once or twice. It's like a rite of passage or something." Zinnia said the next day, the teenagers lunches ignored in favour of talking.

"Yeah, it helped more than I thought it would. Ketros won't stop gloating. Although she took a minute out of the gloating to welcome me to the Order last night, so that was nice."

"Aw, shit, I didn't even think of that. You've only been here for like, two months. Two months and a few weeks? Not long. The point I'm making is, welcome to the Order Michelle. Kick ass and take names, you beautiful champion."

"I get the distinct feeling that that's not the formal introduction."

"Nah, that's totally the one we give to the kids, Force, where have you been?"

"…An alternate dimension?"

"…Fair enough."

* * *

 **AN: Well, that was a fun chapter. Don't worry, this is the last of our filler. Pretty much ever, now that I think about it, because we're kicking into the real plot of Part 2, and in all the other parts shit starts going down immediately. It's fun.**

 **I mean, we do have some more introspection in the beginning of part 3, but it's like, 'look at all the subtle things I can drop about these characters during a fight to the death lol'. They lead entertaining lives.**

 **Also, does anyone have any tips for extremely cheap Christmas shopping? Because I am so very broke, and need at least five presents. And that's if I don't want to get my actual friends anything.**

 **My life is suffering.**

 **Only reviews can stop forest fires. That's a legit Smokey the Bear quote right there. Forreal.**


	18. Part 2, Chapter 4: Assembling

**AN: Okay. Hi guys. So, those of you who are observant may have noticed that the review count jumped by five in one day. I woke up to that, and saw it when checking my email. My immediate reaction was 'holy fucking shit this is the best thing that's ever happened to me'. And then I actually read them, and well.**

 **I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I've got severe ADHD. 95% of people with ADHD also have the symptom of RSD, which stands for rejection sensitive dysphoria. I have that.**

 **This means that just criticism is not helpful. My brain doesn't see that stuff and go 'okay that's a fair point time to start improving', my brain sees that stuff and goes 'ah yes everyone hates you forever why are you still doing this time to go into the shame spiral'. Which is where I have spent the last few days. Because I am literally incapable of taking criticism without immediately getting stuck in a spiral of self loathing. Because I don't see 'I liked this, but…' or 'This could be amazing, if you just…', all my brain reads is 'You're terrible forever and need to stop doing this'.**

 **And I realise, that the knee jerk reaction most people are having right now is 'stop whining' or 'then get better at taking criticism' but I literally can't. I'm not neurotypical. My brain literally cannot function on the same level as you, it is physically impossible. Literally the only time I can actually process criticism without descending into the shame spiral is if it's followed up with an equal or greater amount of 'and so here's everything I liked'. Because that's just how my brain functions.**

 **I know that at this point, someone's probably thinking 'but how will you get better without criticism?'**

 **I don't know. I don't understand everything about myself, and I don't understand everything about my disorder. But I do know a hell of a lot more about myself than anyone else does, and that's not a point I'm willing to argue.**

 **Because I don't get better with just criticism. I shut down and quit with just criticism. This happens in literally every avenue of my life, it's not a new thing, and this isn't a guilt trip. This is me informing readers of my disability, and the needs that result from that, and hoping that some of you will listen. And if you really want me to improve, then either take a different approach, or don't say anything at all. Because I've mentioned, I literally live off validation. It's just how I am.**

 **Anyways. Enough of my problems. Today's chapter is shorter than normal, because… well, between seasonal depression, school stress, and a massive dose of RSD, I just haven't had the spoons to write. Which bothers me, because writing is my biggest escape from all that bullshit.**

 **I don't know. I'll try to be better for Friday.**

 **Thanks to everyone for putting up with my shit.**

* * *

Part 2, Chapter 4: Assembling Their Philosophies

Late Friday evening, Michelle wandered into her and Coltin's apartment, a tired slump to her shoulder from the long day.

She then paused in the doorway, blinking in surprise at the sight of Coltin sitting at their coffee table, across from Zinnia. The two had clearly been talking for a while, judging by the empty mugs in front of them. Michelle was suddenly struck with the distinct feeling of walking into the middle of a parent teacher conference. Which was odd, as Coltin was both surrogate parent and actual teacher, and Zinnia was neither of those things. And now Michelle was having mental images of Zinnia as a teacher.

They were not child friendly images. Hot damn.

Which was probably not the best intrusive thoughts to suddenly have in her current situation. Michelle should not be allowed to think while tired.

"You were out late. Long day?" Coltin asked, thankfully saving Michelle from dwelling on her completely inappropriate thoughts.

"Ugh, yeah. My class on multiverse theory ran late, because I accidentally started a three way debate and I was not going just sit down and lose it like a bitch. It went well. The other two ceded the point before I could get far enough to skip words and punch them in the face. Fun times. Then Anakin and Neria kidnapped me to hand them their tools and listen to them ramble about weird mechanics shit that I don't understand. They're doing some big project with a ship, and seem to think that I either understand or care. I don't. I don't do either. And they didn't let me go for like, hours, it was horrible. So how was your day?" Michelle asked, flopping down on the couch.

"There's grease on your ass." Zinnia pointed out, which was a little unhelpful, as Michelle had already sat down and wasn't planning on getting up.

"It'll clean. And if it doesn't clean, it'll make a cool stain. Win-win. Also, staring at my ass?"

"It's a nice ass."

"Hell yeah it is."

"Okay, I'm going to interrupt here and ask that the blatant flirting at least pretends to be subtle. Like, make a basic attempt. Please." Coltin cut in, looking slightly uncomfortable.

"Sorry."

"Okay, for your Master's comfort, let's just cut to the chase. You remember that thing that happened before your mission a few weeks ago?" Zinnia asked, grinning at Michelle. She stared blankly.

"Uh… The whole… amnesia thing?" She guessed.

"Nooo. After that. Your birthday, remember?"

"Oh, shit, right! That. I remember that."

"Right. So, I may or may not have pulled some strings, called in a few favours, and gotten permission for a little thing for your birthday? But then you were called away on a mission, and then you were busy with classes, so then it's had to be delayed until now. Um, anyways. You wanna go on a camping trip this weekend? Off planet, just the two of us. You in?" Zinnia asked, grinning slightly. Michelle blinked, before returning the expression.

"I- yeah! Yeah, I'm down. When do we leave?"

"Tonight? Tonight would work best. If you're cool with it."

"Hell yeah, give me a minute, I'll go grab some clothes!"

Michelle ran for her room.

"So. It's definitely a mutual interest." Coltin said, in a purposefully neutral tone. On the couch, Zinnia shifted awkwardly.

"Um. Yes, I'm pretty sure that it's a very mutual attraction. We've been flirting a lot. And having emotional heart to hearts. I'm pretty sure this is serious."

"Alright. And you understand that if you break her heart, I'll throw you off the Temple spire? I won't even feel bad about it either. Sure, your master will probably take my face off with a lightsaber in return, but it'll be worth it."

"That's completely fair. I'm really not planning on breaking her heart or anything. I mean- I've been in love with Michelle since we were kids, y'know? This isn't really a short term thing." Zinnia said quietly, looking down at her lap, hand folded neatly.

"Alright. I believe you. The point does hold though, that if somehow you hurt her, I will end you, and I will not regret it." Coltin said firmly. Zinnia gave a weak grin.

"I'm getting the impression that you really wouldn't."

The door to Michelle's bedroom opened again, and the teenager swept back out with a small duffle bag slung over her shoulder, and an excited grin on her face.

"Alright, ready to go!" She said cheerfully, bouncing slightly on her heels.

Zinnia silently looked over at Coltin, who nodded his agreement.

"You kids have fun. Play nice, be responsible, and remember to use protection! Don't catch anything!"

Coltin was promptly cut off by a Force assisted pillow flying through the air and smacking him in the face, courtesy of Michelle.

"Bye master, see you when we get back!" She called out, before firmly leaving. Zinnia lingered for a moment, pausing just long enough for Coltin to make very pointed eye contact, before drawing a finger across his throat. Zinnia flashed a shaky thumbs up, and bolted after Michelle.

Really, she had thought Michelle's master was pretty cool. What she hadn't realised was that he was fucking terrifying as well. Now that was a shovel talk she had not expected to be so frightened during.

Well, good thing she had no plans on breaking Michelle's heart.

* * *

"So, the ship that we were gonna use to get there is unavailable right now. But luckily, I know a pair of mechanical geniuses who just so happen to have a newly refurbished ship to spare." Zinnia said cheerfully, showing Michelle into the hangar. Michelle's jaw dropped.

"Unbelievable. We're stealing Anakin and Neria's unholy nightmare of a ship."

"Nah, we're taking it for a test flight. There's a 99% chance that it won't kill us."

"...And the bastards made me help them with the final checks. We have terrible friends. Just the worst."

"Right? I'd never speak to them again if it wasn't for the occasional free ship. Come on, let's go. I think it's only one berth, so we're gonna have to go for some good old fashioned bed sharing. Um- that is, if you don't mind. I can like, take the floor or something, if you want me to." Zinnia said awkwardly, settling into the pilots seat. Michelle dropped her duffle bag on the floor, and took the co-pilots seat.

"Hey, you know how to fly yet?" Zinnia asked, looking over. Michelle leaned back in alarm, eyes wide.

"Dude, I can't even drive. I am not remotely qualified for this shit."

"Alright then, first lesson. How to get out of the atmosphere in goddamn Couruscant." Zinnia said with forced cheer, before starting the ship up, and turning on something. "Couruscant Traffic Control, this is a Jedi Temple ship, requesting route out of atmosphere…"

It took about fifteen minutes to get a route out of the CTC person, and following the route out was about another half hour, and then Zinnia was finally able to punch them into hyperspace. All in all, Michelle had seen worse rush hour commutes.

"So, why did we have to leave the atmosphere anyways?"

"...Huh?" Zinnia asked, looking over. This was justified, as Zinnia had spent the last forty five minutes hardcore focusing on maneuvering through the air traffic and giving increasingly creative swears. Michelle had almost considered taking notes.

"To go into hyperspace. Couldn't we have like, done it from the atmosphere?"

"...Um… I mean, probably? I would not recommend it, you'd fuck up the part you're launching from, and hyperspace route would be fucked 'cause of a bad launch point. Better to get into orbit and then launch. Why do you ask?"

"I dunno. Vague curiosity. Alright then, we've got free time. Teach me how to fly."

"Okay, so. This is a job that should probably be done by Anakin and Neria, our wonderful resident pilot mechanics, but y'know. Fuck 'em, they gave us the ship, who needs 'em after that? Not us. So, this is the steering…"

* * *

 **AN: There was supposed to be more after this, but, well. Yeah. The small essay up top explains why.**

 **Sorry about the disappointing chapter. Luckily, we're into the plot now, so things might start coming easier.**

 **Also, because I think this might help me on some level: Your pussy's way too dry to be riding my dick like this.**

 **Gay Jesus out.**

 **...And now Gay Jesus back in after taking a few days to cool down, and properly read the reviews that were left. So, I've had two complaints about the Jedi OC's apart from Michelle being too flat, or just weirdly un-Jedi like. First of all to the point of flat characterization: We... haven't had time for character development yet. Zinnia's character development is literally going down in this part, Neria's got some scheduled soon, and Isaac and Seha... well, let's just say I've got plans in that department and back away slowly. And as for un-Jedi like behaviour, I literally have canon examples of Jedi that act in roughly the same manor. Let's start with Quinlan Vos, a Jedi master, whose general demeanour and behaviour is similar to Zinnia's. Canon character. Garen Muln, an incredibly laidback Jedi Knight, that I could probably draw some parrallels to Neria. Canon character. Hell, just look at the crippling ball of neuroses that is Anakin Skywalker, the Order put that on the fucking Council! There are literally dozens of un-Jedi like Jedi I could list. Fucks sake, they're Jedi, not robots. Personality is one of those things that's just going to happen, regardless of where they were raised. But let's not get into a conversation on nature vs nurture right now cause I can go on for hours and nobody wants to hear that shit.**

 **Back on Michelle's 16th birthday, Zinnia obviously wasn't serious about actually hiring prostitutes, mostly due to the fact that everyone in the room was underage. It was one of those things called a joke. Between that and not knowing that literally everyone uses 'sup', I'm getting the distinct impression that Meep is not hip and down with the kids.**

 **Also didn't appreciate the enbyphobia, so kindly fuck off. Literally where did I ask for your opinion. If there was 'only two genders', then I wouldn't have been having multiple sobbing breakdowns as a younger teenager because I was realising that I wasn't a girl or a boy, and had no idea how to proceed from that point. I don't care how funny you think you are. Trans and nonbinary people have an average life expectancy of 25, that's how high the suicide and murder rates are for us. It's easy to laugh when it doesn't affect you, but shit like that is literally killing my community. It almost killed me when I was younger. One of my readers could be in a bad place, try to come here for escape, and get pushed over the edge by that. You don't need to add to this conversation. This is not a fun debate, this is my right to exist that you're calling into question, and I'm not dealing with that shit.**

 **If anyone wants to drop something nice, I'd appreciate it. If anyone wants to drop something not nice... not a great time. Please don't.**

 **And if anybody feels like leaving any more enbyphobia or transphobia, please look up the statistics of teenage suicides in the trans community, and think about if you're comfortable potentially driving that number higher. If you are... then fuck you, I don't want you reading anything I've written. This isn't for you.**


	19. Part 2, Chapter 5: Broken Memories

**AN: Oh my god. So this stack of reviews also made me cry, except for very different reasons. This one was a happy cry. Holy shit. You guys are so nice. Seriously, you guys came the fuck to bat, and that just means so much to me. At risk of sounding like a drunken emotionally repressed person, I love you guys. You guys are the best.**

 **Now why can't y'all turn out like that when I post a selfie.**

 **Joking. Mostly. Also why does the word y'all keep trying to creep into my vocabulary I'm a Canadian teenager not a deep south American farmer. It's very weird. I think I was using it ironically at first but now it wants to be unironic and I'm not okay with that at all.**

 **Anyways, you guys are literally the best readers ever, and fantastic in every possible way. Stay incredible guys.**

 **So, I know there's a proper title to this chapter right below. And you can all listen to that, or you can listen to my personal pet name for this chapter: Part 2, Chapter 5: Finally Skippin' The Bullshit.**

 **Oh yeah. It's that chapter. We're doing this. That thing that literally everyone has seen coming since Zinnia was introduced.**

 **We're gonna do the sex.**

 **Note: We're not literally doing the sex in narration, this shit's staying T rated. You can tell by all the child friendly language and the nice happy themes that have been going on.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Part 2, Chapter 5: Pieces of Broken Memories

Generally speaking, the Chancellor of the Republic was expected to keep long hours. Early mornings were a standard, and late nights were a common staple. Really, part of the reason the Chancellor's seat was considered so difficult to corrupt was simply due to the Chancellor never having any _time_ to be corrupt. Not if they wanted to eat and sleep at least.

Unfortunately for the Republic, the current Chancellor had long since learned to get around that.

The Force had many uses for those who were strong enough. Skilled enough wielders could use the Force to take the place of food, water and sleep. It wasn't advisable to do for long, but entirely better than nothing. And if one needed the time otherwise spent, it was invaluable.

This went doubly so if the person in question was keeping a public facade as the kindly Chancellor of the Republic, while in reality working to destroy it.

The work of a Sith Lord was never done.

And lately, that work had taken on yet another complication.

Currently, Darth Sideous was engaged in an investigation, looking into a previously unknown threat which had somehow remained undetected until now.

On the surface, Michelle Ketros was a standard Jedi. Slightly above average, but not to the point of prodigy, or any particular interest. The only real point of interest were her friendships with Anakin Skywalker, and with the padawan who could sense any lies. And her skills had already been assessed, and judged not a threat.

So how had a single unremarkable, amnesia stricken teenager stumbled across Sideous's true plans?

Examining into her personal files proved slightly more illuminating. Assignments and personal entries from before her amnesia continued the trend of supposed normalcy, with nothing of interest being found, beyond two assignments on multiverse theory that brought up unusual points. But outside of a mild intellectual point, there was no hint of her knowledge.

After her injury however, her personal entries shifted tone, with Padawan Ketros expressing disorientation and alarm, before eventually shifting into an attempt to sort out priorities, listing out various people and organizations that would need to be observed, with Chancellor Palpatine at the top of that list.

So, her knowledge - or at the very least suspicious - had come from after her memory loss.

The files also revealed that she had kept her information entirely to herself, beyond casually attempting to warn Skywalker away. Padawan Ketros seemed to be settling in for the long game, and acting under the assumption that she could reveal her knowledge in her own time.

That would make this easier to solve.

There were plenty of mercenary groups with a grudge against Jedi, and plenty of those were known either by Darth Sideous, or by someone working for him. The very top of Ketros's records showed her leaving Couruscant with the lie detecting girl, for what was apparently a weekend meditation retreat. The planet of their destination was uninhabited, with no sentient life living on it, and was not a common tourist destination.

It would be easy to arrange for both to be taken care of there.

The preparations to do so were quick, and afterwards Sideous returned to finish examining Ketros's files. Clearly, with her knowledge, she had taken steps to hide just how much she knew, writing disjointed notes to herself on who to watch and what to watch for. No detail of how or why in each case. Some people were mentioned that Sideous had previously assumed beyond interest. Some people were even unknown to him.

Clearly, she had already realised her personal files were unsafe, and in risk of being broken into and read by any interested parties.

He would have to look deeper for the information he required.

* * *

"I don't understand your organizational system. What have you done." Zinnia said in mild shock, looking through the handful of notes Michelle had written down, all on the subject of various threats that would appear to the Republic.

"I dunno. I just like… start writing stuff down, and then there's a lot of stuff that needs to be written down, and I just like… forget. To write down context. I remember why everything's a problem, and that's good enough for me." Michelle said, shrugging awkwardly.

The two had decided to use the few hour hyperspace trip to compare notes, with Michelle breaking out her personal datapad, and the stack of notes she had made on it. They were a bit of a mess, and clearly all typed out now and them on a whim whenever she had the time, and remembered to do it. Mostly, it was just quick lists of people and places to watch, with the occasional comment added on. Usually, this wasn't so much context, as it was Michelle deciding she needed to make it clear exactly how much the person in question annoyed her. There were a few. They were not illuminating.

"No, like, seriously, did you do this on purpose? Like, you somehow realised that the encryption on the standard personal stuff is shit, so you actively made this the most convoluted clusterfuck ever for the sole purpose of fucking with people? Because that sounds like something you would do."

"...What do you mean the encryptions bad? I thought that was private!"

Zinnia slowly lowered Michelle's datapad, giving her a long look of disgust.

"Sure, it's private. Like a locked bedroom door. If someone knows what they're doing and wants to get in, they'll be stopped. For about five seconds. Seriously, I think I know younglings that could break that encryption."

"...Holy fuck, really?"

"Yeah, those kids can be clever bastards sometimes. Just… don't put anything incriminating on here? You never know when someone's going to go through it. If you need an actually private system made for you, just come to me. I got you covered babe." Zinnia said firmly, giving Michelle a grin.

Michelle grinned back. Before it could develop into a moment, beeping sounded from the cockpit.

"Oh, here we are. Come on, I'll show you how exiting hyperspace and landing goes." Zinnia said cheerfully, getting up and heading back into the cockpit. After a moment, Michelle trailed behind, mildly irritated.

If the universe could stop cockblocking all of her attempts to put the moves on Zinnia, that would be great.

* * *

"...And then you engage the landing breaks, turn off the engines, and drop the landing ramp. Done. That's how you land a starship."

"Wow. I could absolutely pilot now." Michelle said cheerfully, looking enthusiastic from the co-pilots seat.

"You absolutely could not, that's a last resort. Do only if I've somehow gotten shot and need you to get us into hyperspace immediately." Zinnia said firmly, looking mildly alarmed at the concept of Michelle flying. That was completely understandable. Michelle flying a starship was an alarming thought.

"So… where are we anyways?" Michelle asked, getting out of her seat as Zinnia did, both heading for the landing ramp.

"Totally uninhabited. We're the only sentient life on this planet right now. Welcome to Allindah. Like it?"

They seemed to have landed in an area experiencing its summer, due to the flourishing plants and warm temperature. A warm breeze was flowing through, and the air smelled pure and clean, free from pollution. The sky was clear, with the sun at a position of late afternoon, and they seemed to have landed in some kind of boreal forest, inside a clearly. Michelle could hear a river nearby, as well as birds singing and trees rustling. All in all…

It felt like Earth.

Zinnia was surprised by Michelle grabbing her in a hug, squeezing the other teenager tightly.

"I love it. Thank you." Michelle muttered, holding her tightly. After a moment, Zinnia hugged back.

"No problem Michelle."

* * *

Technically speaking, they could have just slept in their ship. But frankly, that would have horribly defeated the point of the trip. So, tents and campfire was the procedure of the evening.

The fact that Zinnia had no idea how to do either of those things was fairly hilarious.

"Look, I'm just saying, I know I could make something out of the materials on the ship. I can make a small explosive, we'll set it off, and that's our fire for the night. Boom."

"Camping does not involve explosions. You goddamn heathen." Michelle said firmly, carefully arranging kindling in the small pit they had made. "Get back to pitching the tents."

"I would like to, I'd really like to, but I'm not an engineer so this is beyond me."

"How in the fuck- Poles don't go there! How did you do that!?"

"...The Force?"

"I don't- Is that stuck in a tree? Why did you do that with a rock? How even- okay, that's it, you have a new job. Go get firewood. Don't cause explosions, don't do anything insane, just gather wood. Can I trust you with that." Michelle begged, looking between the disaster Zinnia had made of one of the tents and the girl in question.

Her shrug was not encouraging.

"Dunno if I can do it without chaos, but we're gonna find out!"

And with a blinding grin, Zinnia ambled off into the woods.

At least she was having fun.

Because Michelle had a fire to start, a tent to put up, and another to put out of its misery. Was it possible to mercy kill a tent? She was starting to feel like she had to.

* * *

"Okay, so I know I said some bullshit about stargazing back on Coruscaunt, but this is the real deal. Damn. Are there people that like… live with this? Above them? Every night? How does anyone sleep?"

"Excellent question. Wish I knew." Michelle said grinning softly.

Night had long since fallen, and both girls were laying on the ground together, looking up at the sky above them. With them being the only sentients on the planet, light pollution was non existent. Both were enjoying the unobstructed view of the night sky.

"I mean, I get like, space and all. But it's different from a planet somehow, y'know? _Space_."

"No, no, I get you."

Michelle did not get her. But she was fairly certain that at the moment, Zinnia didn't quite get herself, so it was probably fine.

The two lapsed into a comfortable silence, and held it for roughly half an hour. Finally, after only the sound of the night and their breathing, Zinnia broke the quiet.

"So… You remember what happened your birthday?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well… there's something I've been meaning to tell you. Um, since then. It's kind of important, but I don't really know how to say it properly- and I just- I've been waiting for the right time, and-"

"Zinnia, what is it?"

"Michelle, I- I really like you. Um. As more than a friend, I think. I- I'm really bad at this, sorry-"

"No, don't be! I- I really like you too Zinnia. And… and I wish that we hadn't been interrupted that night."

There was a pause, as Zinnia worked through that revelation, and summed up her courage.

"Well… we're alone now. No interruptions. We could… pick it up? If you want, I mean."

"I… Yes. I think I would like that."

The kiss was understandably awkward, with the inexperience of both parties clearly showing. Despite that, they quickly made up for it with enthusiasm, quickly developing into full blown make out.

It was kind of fantastic.

It took a while, but eventually Michelle managed to separate them for a moment, although she made a point of keeping her arms around Zinnia's waist.

"Uh- y'know, there's a perfectly good tent over there I set up that you haven't had a chance to destroy yet. Wanna go break it in? If you're cool with that." Michelle suggested, looking slightly nervous.

Zinnia's eyes widened in shock, a blush rapidly spreading across her face.

"You mean- you mean like-"

"Yeah. If you want to."

"Yes. Force yes. Let's go see if I can break that tent too."

"I don't know if it's possible, but I look forwards to helping you find out."

They didn't end up breaking their remaining tent that night, though not for lack of trying.

* * *

 **AN: That's code for 'Michelle and Zinnia are fucking like rabbits offscreen'. Goddamn horny kids. And yes, 'break the tent' is the best euphemism I could think of shut up. There's gonna be better ones. Probably. Maybe.**

 **FYI, this is how all sex scenes are gonna work. All persons involved get in the position for sexytimes, and we immediately cut to black to preserve that sweet, sweet rating. If we keep going into the scene, that's usually a sign that sex is not going to be accomplished that day. It's gonna happen at least twice, I don't know exactly. The specific details of Michelle's sex life are still being banged out.**

 **Heh. Banged.**

 **A+ wordplay as always right there. God I'm professional.**

 **Anyways, see you all Tuesday for how this turns out. Let's just say Michelle's going to walk out of it all with the greatest 'What I Did This Weekend' story EVER. Not necessarily the happiest, but definitely the most interesting. It'll be a fun story for her to tell when she gets back. To the people she's still on speaking terms with afterwards.**

 **Can you say teen drama?**

… **Better question, do you WANT to say teen drama? Cause if you're anything like me, you can, but you're only willing to say it for the remainder of part 2. That's how long this goes before we clean that shit up.**

 **I mean I like interpersonal conflicts as much as the next guy but ohhhh my god there's a point where everyone needs to sit down and either stop spending time with people they apparently hate, or find some real problems to focus on.**

 **My derailed point is that the Teen Drama is going to happen, but don't buckle up for it cause it's not staying long. If you can guess what exactly that teen drama is, good job! Because I've been forshadowing the fuck out of it the entire story, especially in this part.**

 **Thanks for the kind reviews last chapter! Love you guys!**


	20. Part 2, Chapter 6: The Beat of My Heart

**AN: Oh my god you guys 20 chapters!? This is very impressive to me for a variety of reasons. Namely, wow, I had the patience to stick with this for so long, I'm so proud of myself. Author of the year right here kids. Shower me in flowers and awards.**

 **Anyways, the only thing you really need to know about this chapter going in is that at one point I laughed so hard I got a bunch of my own hair in my mouth and almost choked. And that while I found this hilarious, that's just because I've been building up to it so much, and I know there's going to be a lot of very not happy people at the end of it. I'm a dick!**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Part 2, Chapter 6: The Beat Of My Heart

The morning after was… awkward.

At first, anyways.

Michelle was the first to wake up, and while the naked cuddling with her sleeping (girlfriend? Friend with benefits? Fuckbuddy?) was nice, Michelle was an inherently restless person, and ended up dressed and pacing around outside within half an hour.

Because holy shit. She had sex last night. With Zinnia. They did the sex.

…And it was awesome.

Initial fumbling aside, of course. Although she had noticed that Zinnia seemed considerably more experienced than Michelle. Not that that would be _hard_ exactly, considering Michelle's status as a virgin.

…Actually, make that former status. Hell yeah.

Holy _shit_ she had sex with Zinnia.

How did mornings after even work? Was she supposed to be acting all sexy? Casual? Making breakfast?

Well, whatever the fuck the correct action was, Michelle was about nine hundred percent certain she was not supposed to pacing around in anxiety. And yet, she couldn't bring herself to stop. Unfortunate.

"Morning!" Zinnia said cheerfully, exiting the tent wearing her clothes from the night before and a bright grin.

"M-morning." Michelle replied. And why was she automatically blushing? Not okay.

"…You okay?" Zinnia asked, grin shifting into a concerned look.

"This is awkward." Michelle said awkwardly, feeling increasingly awkward.

Zinnia's look of concern gained an extra note of mild alarm.

"Is it? What – what's wrong?"

"So… um, we should talk? I guess? Um – I mean - I don't know what we are. Now, I mean."

"Oh. Okay? Let's talk about that then. Communication and all. Um. Well, I kind of… kind of assumed that we were a thing now? Like, dating level thing? I don't know how you were looking at it though, so… yeah." Zinnia said, shrugging slightly and looking down.

"I… yes. Um, to the dating thing. I'd like to do that as well. Be girlfriends. With you. And – like, hold hands? And kiss? And stuff like that." Michelle stammered out, a small, tentative grin appearing on her face. Zinnia beamed in return.

"Yes! I'm very okay with that. With us. Being an item. So, breakfast?"

And just like that, Michelle had a girlfriend.

* * *

Being Zinnia's girlfriend wasn't overly different from being her friend. The only real differences Michelle could notice was that they were now holding hands.

And, y'know. The whole sex thing. Both were equally nice, for some considerably different reasons. It was stuff girlfriends did.

Wow, Michelle was actually literally in a relationship. She had gotten herself a girlfriend.

Clearly, she was a love god in human form.

…Or, well. Not human. Half human? That was still weird, and firmly on Michelle's list of things not to think about. There were so many better things to focus on. Things that didn't induce extreme discomfort.

Things like the fact that Zinnia was holding her hand. Things like the fact that she was on a date. With Zinnia.

Everything was amazing forever.

Although, in all fairness, she had apparently been on that date all weekend. Who knew Zinnia could be so smooth? And without Michelle noticing?

It was either really impressive, or Michelle was impressively oblivious. Possibly both.

"…And so there's supposed to be this lake, down this way? Should be nice, we can go swimming and stuff. It'll be fun!" Zinnia said cheerfully, walking through the forest, hand in hand with Michelle.

"Yeah, sounds great!"

It took about fifteen minutes to walk down to the lake, hand in hand the entire time. The walk was mostly spent in silence, enjoying each other's company, until they reached it.

The lake was a proper, impressive lake, stretching out past the horizon. There were a few islands that Michelle could see, and she idly wondered if it would be possible for her to swim out to them. Normally, she would have said no, but with the work she had put in to maintaining her (technically Ketros's) status of fucking ripped… Yeah, she could probably do it. It would be fun to try.

Her intriguing and deeply plot relevant train of thought was derailed by a faint droning sound, one that Michelle didn't recognize. It didn't sound like a bug, at least not one that she knew of. It was too… constant. Steady. Artificial, almost. Some sort of machine? Engine?

Fuck it, better get a second opinion.

"...Hey, do you hear something?" Michelle said, stopping in place, and looking around with a slightly puzzled expression.

"No, why? ...Wait, no. Hang on. Yeah, there's something. The fuck is that sound?" Zinnia muttered, brow furrowed in confusion.

The two girls stood still for a moment, trying to figure out what the faint droning sound was, as it got steadily louder.

A starship came over the horizon, stopping in the air above the pair.

"The fuck? We were supposed to be the only people here!" Zinnia hissed, giving an annoyed gesture at the new ship.

"I dunno, maybe they're also on vacation- LOOK OUT!" Michelle screamed, grabbing Zinnia and making a Force-assisted leap away. This was a very fortunate thing, as the ship had fired on the spot where the two girls had been.

"What the fuck? Why are they shooting at us?" Zinnia demanded, grabbing Michelle's hand and running into the trees, the ship in close pursuit.

"I don't know! Who have we pissed off lately? Does that even matter compared to the immediate priority of making them STOP! SHOOTING! AT! US!" Michelle howled, punctuating each word with pulling up a decent sized tree, and hurling it at the ship. The Force was really convenient sometimes.

"The fuck man!?" Zinnia yelped, grabbing Michelle by the arm and tugging her back.

"What?"

Above them, the tree slammed into the ship, causing it to wobble in the air, before resuming fire.

"God damn it! Okay, you cover me or whatever, I'll keep throwing trees!"

"Hey, wait-"

Michelle ignored her, taking off running on her own, uprooting another, larger tree, and throwing it as well. Before the ship could return fire, she sent another two trees flying. The Force was amazing.

A large splat of mud landed across the ships windshield.

"...The fuck?" Michelle muttered, turning to see Zinnia with her arms outstretched, the obvious culprit.

"Why did you do that?" Michelle called, pulling up another tree just in case.

"Forcing them to land without potentially killing them!"

"...They're trying to kill us." Michelle pointed out, before throwing the tree she was levitating.

"And we're not supposed to reply in kind! Not unless it's absolutely necessary!"

"Who the fuck came up with that stupid idea?"

"It's the Jedi Code!"

"...Well, I'm not technically a Jedi. So fuck your code."

" _Michelle!"_ Zinnia gasped, clearly scandalized. Whatever.

Behind their argument, the mystery ship seemed to be having some difficulties. Specifically, losing altitude at an alarming rate. Clearly, all the trees Michelle had thrown worked. And Zinnia blinding them clearly hadn't hurt.

"Ha! See? My tree strategy worked, they're landing. Now we can have aggressive negotiations like adults."

"Aggressive negotiations?"

"Like negotiating, but you're using a lightsaber."

"You're going to kill them!?"

Zinnia's cry was drowned out by Michelle igniting her lightsaber, and walking towards the grounded ship, clearly ready for a fight.

The landing ramp lowered, and several people exited, all armed to the teeth. Michelle would have felt intimidated, except she had just thrown half a dozen trees with her mind, and was holding a laser sword, so the adrenaline rush from that was enough to leave her confident in her position as the biggest badass in the world.

"Alright you little shits. We were hired to deal with some Jedi, and we're going to be dealing with some Jedi. And for that fucking stunt with the trees, we're going to make it nice and painful." The lead one snarled, drawing a blaster and leveling it at Michelle. She raised her hands in a calming gesture.

"Hey man, let's calm down. Besides, now that you're out of the ship, I can still throw trees at you." She pointed out, before using the Force to pull a half-uprooted tree at the probably bounty hunters from behind.

Two of them were smacked to the ground by the horizontal flying tree, while the other three managed to duck, leaving the tree now speeding towards Michelle. Fortunately, due to being the one to send it in that direction, she was prepared, and leapt over it, perfectly cleared the tree, and flung herself at the still-standing bounty hunters.

They managed to let off two shots before Michelle closed in, both of which were deflected into the ground. One wide swing later, and the remaining bounty hunters were very dead.

"And that's why you don't bring a blaster to a lightsaber fight. Dumbasses. Now, the real question is, who paid them to come here and kill us? What enemies have we made? Zinnia, ideas?" Michelle said with some forced cheer, casually moving away from the bodies. Because while she was pretty sure it was justified to kill people like that, there was still the whole 'ew dead body' thing. Because, ew. Dead bodies.

It seemed to be getting to Zinnia as well, because she was pale, and her hands were clenched into fists, and shaking slightly.

"You didn't have to kill them." Zinnia said quietly, in a tone of barely restrained fury.

"...The hell are you talking about? They were going to kill us! I don't know how good I am with this thing yet, I wasn't going to risk it!"

"You could have just disarmed them. The Jedi Code-"

"Why in the fuck would I know the Jedi Code!? Or even really care about it!?"

"Because you were raised to obey it maybe!?"

"No, I wasn't, as you fucking well know- wait. Hang on. Are you… are you comparing me to Ketros?"

"I- I don't know? Yes? Why wouldn't I? You're basically the same person anyways, so it's not like-"

"No we aren't! We're two different people, you can't just- can't just treat us like we're interchangeable! I'm here, not Ketros! I did all of this, not her! I'm your girlfriend, not-"

"WELL MAYBE I WANTED TO DATE HER, NOT YOU!"

There was a shocked silence, Zinnia glaring, and Michelle staring in a mute, shocked hurt. After a beat, her expression also shifted into a glare, the look grim on her face.

"Well, fine. You don't have to be dating me if it's so fucking awful. Are we done?" She snapped, tone icy.

"Fine. We're done."

"Great. I'll be in the ship, whenever you're ready to go."

And with that, Michelle turned and stomped into the woods, heading in the direction of the ship.

"Can you believe that bitch?" She muttered under her breath, directed at Ketros.

' _She… she wanted to be dating me. Oh Force, Zinnia loves me, not you. I- I can't talk to you right now.'_ Ketros said, sounding numb with shock, before her presence faded into the background of Michelle's mind.

Well fine. She didn't need Ketros. She didn't need anyone.

Getting back to the ship, she locked herself inside of the single berth. She wasn't interested in talking to Zinnia anymore.

After a while she sensed the other girl arrive on the ship, and angrily pack up their campsite, before taking off.

She didn't attempt to talk to Michelle. That was probably for the best.

* * *

 **AN: HAHAHAHAHOW DID YOU NOT SEE THE MILLIONS OF RED FLAGS I WAS PUTTING UP WITH THIS PAIR. IT'S NOT A GOOD IDEA.**

 **Okay so basically the rundown on what just happened: Yes. I spent over 60 thousand words building up to Zinnia and Michelle getting together, and then had them crash and burn in a single chapter. I'm a dickhead.**

 **But. Zinnia was in love with Ketros, pretty much since they were little. It started as a crush, but holy shit did it have some lasting power, and she was 90% certain that Ketros reciprocated, but was waiting to make her move. Then Ketros is swapped out for Michelle, and Zinnia powers through the heartbreak, and basically uses Michelle as a rebound/replacement. That came to light really quickly here thanks to external influences, but trust me when I say they would not have lasted more than a month or two. This immediate breakup, while extremely painful for all parties, is ultimately a good thing.**

 **Now let's clear the air: Both parties actions are understandable. Michelle obviously is not okay with being treated like someone else, and is feeling the betrayal. Zinnia is seriously hurting, because the love of her life essentially died, and now she's hanging out with someone who looks exactly like Ketros, and acts quite a bit like her as well. That's gotta hurt. So it's understandable that she basically just went 'lmao okay she's still Ketros it's fine it's fine'. There's some denial in play. As exhibited by Zinnia slipping up a few times and expecting Michelle to understand references to Ketros.**

 **Basically, neither of them are the bad guys in the situation. They've just made some bad choices.**

 **Anyways, see you all Friday for when the fallout of this fling hits their circle of mutual friends! And, of course, Michelle needs to get to the bottom of the real problem here: Who's trying to kill her?**

 **It's Palpatine, obviously, but she doesn't know that yet. Give it a bit.**

 **Anyways, see you Friday for the inevitable emotional fallout! Because when you date someone that you share a friend group with, it's not a good idea to have messy volatile breakups. Because then people need to start taking sides, and fingers get pointed, and it's this whole fuckin thing.**


	21. Part 2, Chapter 7: Gnashing Teeth

**AN: Hey guys! So, since this is the last update before the days, happy Hannukah, merry Christmas, happy any other holidays falling around now, and for those of you that don't have any, good luck pushing through all the Christmas bullshit that nobody shuts up about! Obnoxious, isn't it? It's what I celebrate and I can barely stand it. Anyways, happy holidays to all!**

 **Anyways. So last chapter was loads of fun. This one is too, but less life and death drama. Mostly. It's set up.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Part 2, Chapter 7: Gnashing Teeth

"Okay, so my credits are on them being a couple now." Neria said, nudging Anakin with a grin.

"Nah. They're probably still trying to spit it out." The younger boy replied, shrugging slightly.

The two were waiting in a hangar of the temple. Technically speaking, they were mostly just waiting for their ship to return, so that they could finish examining how it went. Meeting their friends as they arrived was just a side bonus. The most important thing was those sweet, sweet post-flight checks.

"Oh, there they are. Get ready to make some subtle inquiries as to the state of their relationship."

"Or we could just ask them whether they banged or not."

"...Where did you pick up language like that?"

"...Places."

The ship landed, and the ramp quickly came down. Instead of the expected greeting of both girls coming down and happily discussing their vacation (or possibly new relationship), the two mechanics were instead meeted with both exiting the ship in sullen silence, ignoring one another and simmering with silent anger. Neither of them bothered to greet their waiting friends, instead just exiting the hangar. By different doors no less.

"...The fuck?" Neria muttered, looking after where the two had left.

"So. I'm guessing they're not a couple."

* * *

Coltin had been enjoying the quiet weekend without any teenage padawans in the apartment. He had kept himself occupied with reading, meditating, and spending some time in the salles, working on his katas.

And definitely none of it was spent in irrational worry over his absent padawan. That would be ridiculous. Ha ha. Ha.

And at the moment, he was relaxing on the couch with a cup of tea and a datapad, waiting for his apprentice to arrive home. And the inevitable happy rambling that would follow.

The one good thing about her amnesia was that she was active more open with him lately. For however that made sense.

The door opened, and he got to his feet.

"Padawan! You're back! How was the weekend- what happened?"

Michelle had her jaw clenched tightly, and was practically giving off an aura of anger. And underneath that anger…

Pain. Emotional, thankfully, not physical. Still, this definitely required a master's intervention.

"Come on kiddo, talk to me, what's wrong?"

"I- and Zinnia- and she- with-" Michelle stammered out, punctuating the words with sharp gestures that were quickly aborted, as she tried to get the words out. Coltin waited patiently, projecting a sense of calm and safety at her.

And then she gave up on words entirely and broke down in tears.

Coltin's 'Respectable Jedi Master' aura went out the window in a heartbeat, in exchange for pulling her into a hug. Because Jedi serenity was all well and good, but sometimes you just needed to hug your crying kid. And while officially he was supposed to deny it… Michelle was very much Coltin's kid.

Yeah. He was pretty much the worst Jedi ever.

But, considering he was holding the closest thing he'd ever have to a kid, he was pretty okay with that.

It took a lot of crying and comforting, but eventually Coltin managed to get the full story out of her. Or, most of the story. It seemed to boil down to her and Zinnia getting together, and then breaking up on account of an argument.

Ah, to be a teenager again. There was a long list of thing Coltin would choose to go through over puberty again. Being thrown off a cliff and literally getting castrated were both on that list.

Still, the point remained, Michelle was upset and crying, and it was apparently Zinnia's fault. Which was unfortunate. For her.

Coltin mentally booked off the next day. He would be very busy engaging in the only possible response to someone hurting his padawan.

He would be having a talk with Zinnia's master. Quite possibly a violent one.

He was such a badass. Master of the year.

* * *

"Michelle! Hey!"

Michelle sighed, and turned around, Frankly, after the weekend she had had, she didn't even want to be outside of her room, but she had things to do, and Coltin was mysteriously absent on a mystery errand. She didn't even want to know.

Really, she had just gotten back the day before. How could he suddenly have something to do? Weird man.

"Hey guys. What is it?"

Seha and Isaac had been the ones to track her down, both looking to be various levels of concerned.

"So… we heard what happened from Neria, who heard from Zinnia… and, it sounded a little one sided. But from what we managed to gather… are you okay?" Isaac asked, clearly worried.

Michelle had a support group. Weird. Having friends was weird.

"Eh. I'm getting by. Look, I'm not really in a talking mood right now, can you guys… I don't know. Do this later? Or not at all? I've got stuff to do. By myself."

Michelle almost winced as she finished talking, realizing in hindsight that wow, that was fucking rude. She was a terrible friend. Just the worst.

Fortunately, Seha was good at being the bigger person. Both due to being physically larger, and also nicer than the others. Really, she was the best Jedi of the friend group. Council material maybe even.

"Alright, you take however much time you need. We're staying neutral on this, so if you need to talk, just come find either of us, okay? ...Also, I'd avoid Neria if I were you. She's… not thrilled. With you specifically. Yeah. Anyways, have a good day. And seriously, if you need anything, call me."

And with that, Seha gave Michelle a quick hug, and left. She had such good friends.

Isaac hung back a moment, looking mildly nervous, before leaning in towards Michelle.

"Just between you and me? I'm actually on your side. Don't tell Seha, she'll get that disappointed look? You know the one. It's awful. Thanks!"

And Isaac ran off after Seha, catching up to her down the hall and matching her pace.

Expressing support while also respecting her boundaries. Michelle's friends were so good. And she didn't even do the heavy lifting to get them at first. The benefits of bodyswapping.

And speaking of…

A quick mental poke confirmed the continued truth. Ketros was refusing to respond to Michelle.

Bitch.

Whatever. Michelle had a meeting to get to.

She finished walking to the Room of the Thousand Fountains, and after some wandering, spotted the person she was looking for, and sat down beside him.

"Hey Anakin. You would not believe the fucking weekend I had."

"Are you explaining why you were so pissy getting back? Cause I still haven't heard an explanation for that." Anakin said, sounding slightly resigned to the whole thing. The younger teenager looked relaxed, boots off and pants rolled up, feet dunked in the fountain he was sitting at. Michelle was fairly certain he wasn't supposed to be doing that, but frankly, it looked like a good idea to her. So, she quickly kicked off her own shoes and joined him.

"Okay so. In order. I got laid, I got a girlfriend, people tried to kill us, I stopped them, got into a screaming argument with the girlfriend, and now no longer have a girlfriend. Except for the part about getting laid, this all happened within the span of two hours."

"...Alright, I'll admit, that's more impressive than I was expecting. Damn. Do I want to know what the argument was about?"

"No. If you ask, I'm drowning myself."

"Fair enough. Wanna not talk about it?"

"Jesus, yes."

"...You keep saying that, who the hell is Jesus?"

"Uh- he's- um- it's hard to explain, don't ask. Long story. Ask about something else."

Anakin gave her a weird look, but shrugged, changing the conversation topic.

"Alright. Weirdo. I don't know… got any new conspiracy theories?"

"Moons aren't real. They're all government monitoring stations. Every last one of them. The more moons a planet has, the more they're watching." Michelle said, the response coming quickly and easily. Honestly, conspiracy theories were _fun_. And she had even more ammo to work with in a futuristic universe.

"...Huh. A lot of your theories can be blamed on the government, huh?"

"Totally. Government is responsible for everything except actually governing. Typical, right?"

Anakin snickered, and kicked some water at her leg. Naturally, she retaliated, and the two spent the next few minutes casually engaged in an epic splash fight to determine the fate of the galaxy. Or whoever had better aim, or stronger feet. Y'know. Equally important things.

The fight was ended by a master coming along, shooting both teenagers a sharp look, and effectively frightening them into submission. Jedi were _good_ at death glares.

"Okay, that was scary. But seriously, you've got a lot of government theories. Like, that one about Palpatine being a Sith Lord? Come on." Anakin said, laughter in his voice.

Michelle snorted, and tipped her head back, mostly for the purpose of hiding any satisfaction on her face. She was fine with Anakin thinking it was all a joke, as long as he was thinking about it. Getting the idea stuck in his head was kind of what she was going for. Victory for Michelle.

"I appreciate that you're still thinking about it. That's a legitimate theory, tell your friends."

"Oh, I have! Hey, did you know, I actually know the Chancellor?"

Michelle felt a sudden spike of unease, but pushed it down.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah! I told him about your theory, he thought it was pretty funny too!"

"...Did- did he now." Michelle forced out, in a strangled voice.

That would explain why the people had been trying to kill her.

Palpatine knew that she knew about him.

Fuuuuuck.

* * *

Michelle's reaction was pretty damn hilarious.

She had gone pale as a sheet, and was clearly frantically trying to keep her cool. Unfortunately for her, Anakin could see through the half assed attempt, and could tell that she was extremely freaked out at the fact that her crazy theory had been passed along to the man in question. Really, what did she expect?

Okay, she probably hadn't expected Anakin to be friends with the Chancellor. That was understandable. But in Anakin's professional opinion, she was overreacting a little.

"Don't worry, he's not mad or anything, he got that it was a joke." He tried, giving his best reassuring smile. She look distinctly un-reassured. Damn.

"That's all well and good but oh my god he knows- knows about my insane theory. Oh my god. Holy fuck."

"You have a weird way of swearing, has anyone ever told you that-"

"I'M STRESSED FUCK DAMN IT!"

Michelle's sudden yell seemed to have come out louder than she intended, and she turned bright red as multiple heads turned, and glares came from the people disturbed from a meditation, or just irritated with her for yelling.

"Maybe we should go right now before we get yelled at." Anakin suggested, quickly removing his feet from the fountain and shoving his boots back on.

"Good idea. Let's leave immediately and at a rapid pace, preferably in the opposite direction of that guy that I think is coming to yell at us." Michelle said with forced cheer, also replacing her shoes, and getting up. The two left at a very brisk pace, in the opposite direction of the master who was absolutely coming to yell at them.

...The incident was probably going to get back to Master Obi-Wan.

Damn it.

Well, all the more reason not to return to the apartment right away. And besides, Michelle had a look on her face like she was going to be worrying over the Chancellor hearing her conspiracy theory for the rest of the week, and he was pretty sure she had enough to be stressing about.

Fortunately, Anakin had a solution to both problems.

"Hey, so you know how the Chancellor's my friend?"

"...Yeah." Michelle said, dragging the word out slightly more than she needed to, suspicion clear in her voice.

"Well, I could probably arrange for you to meet him. To prove that he's not mad or anything. And you could even apologize, if it would make you feel better!"

There was a pause, and Michelle's face shifted into one of deep thought. Clearly, she was having some sort of internal debate with herself, although she continued to walk, matching pace with Anakin. Finally, she sighed.

"Well, might as well get it over with. Like ripping off a band aid. Sure, let's go see the Chancellor. Should be fun. In an 'I'm going to die horribly' sort of way." Michelle deadpanned, assuming the grim expression of someone walking to their execution.

Honestly, she was so _dramatic_ sometimes.

* * *

 **AN: Hahaha THAT'S FOR A REASON ANAKIN. SHE IS QUIETLY FRIGHTENED FOR HER LIFE.**

 **Fortunately for Michelle, Anakin being in the dark about everything works both ways. He might have revealed her to Palpatine, but he's also passed it on to her that he knows. So Michelle… doesn't have an advantage, but at least she's approaching even footing.**

 **Well, not that either. But now she gets a chance to try and talk Palpatine into not killing her. So that's fun.**

 **Epic showdown next chapter!**

 **Fun fact: The Michelle Palpatine showdown was actually the first scene ever written for this. Like, back before I did P1 Ch1, or even got anywhere on the outline. It just… demanded to be written. It's a good scene. And means that part of the work for next chapter is already done!**

 **Honestly, this part is turning out shorter than I expected. I don't think that's going to be a problem in the future, because all the other parts REALLY go long. Like, come part five, the chapter outlines are all big paragraphs, and I've got a 1000 word scene written already that covers one short sentence for one. It's gonna get looong.**

 **But for now, we're a little short. Whatever. It happens.**

 **See you all Tuesday! And again, happy holidays!**

 **Also, just so you know. At one point, I seriously considered writing 'The Displacement Holiday Special', and it was going to be just as much of a nightmare as you'd think. Instead, I decided that I really didn't have the time, and scrapped the idea before it hit the outlining stage. You're welcome.**


	22. Part 2, Chapter 8: Criminal Tongues

**AN: Oookay. Good news first. We got to 5000 hits last chapter. Fuck yeah.**

 **On a not fuck yeah level, 2016 has managed to fuck us one last time. For those of you that don't know, Carrie Fisher died earlier today. I'm… pretty torn up about it.**

 **As an author, you'd think that I'd know what to say here. Because literally what I do is find the right words for these things. But… I don't have the words here. I don't know what to say here.**

 **This isn't going to change anything I have planned in my writing. For Division, I'm probably going to tear up while writing Leia, but beyond that, I'm just more dead set on keeping her as amazing as always.**

 **Anyways. Sorry to start us on such a depressing note. But, it's been a fucking awful year and oh my god is it closing on the worst possible note.**

* * *

Part 2, Chapter 8: Criminal Tongues

Michelle realised that she was acting weird and jumpy. She realised that Anakin had probably noticed her being weird and jumpy. Normally, this would be something she tried to avoid, but frankly she was so fucking done she didn't even care enough to stop. She was probably about to die. She deserved to be a bit alarmed.

Not that Anakin knew what they were walking into. Wonderful, dumbass child.

Although in all fairness, Palpatine was _good_ at manipulation. She really didn't blame the kid for not figuring out that he shouldn't be trusted. Not to mention the fact that by now, Palpatine would have been grooming Anakin's development for a good four years already.

Poor bastard. Not even realizing what he had gotten into.

' _Unlike you, who is the pinnacle of sanity and good decision making, and walking right into a fucking Sith Lord's lair, and casually hoping he doesn't kill you. Have I mentioned I'm not okay with this?'_ Ketros snarked, although there was a distinct undercurrent of fear to her words. Michelle didn't blame her. She was in the exact same mental position.

' _Then why the fuck are you doing this!?'_

Okay, Ketros being able to read her thoughts was getting annoying. She'd figure out how to shield eventually. Probably.

But really, her walking right the fuck into a Sith Lords office wasn't actually as insane as it sounded. She had plans. For a start, he already knew about her knowing. So she really wasn't particularly safe… well, anywhere. Really, she was probably up there on the kill list with Obi-Wan, who somehow never noticed that there was a goddamn Sith Lord actively trying to get him killed. What a badass.

...Not that she had room to judge, considering she was completely stumped about the attack on Allindah before Anakin had inadvertently clued her in as to what was really going on. Wonderful child.

Anyways. So her confronting Palpatine was bound to happen at some point or another. It was just one of those things that she had to do. It only made sense to get it over with. And besides, the sooner she could convince him it was in his best interest not to kill her, the sooner she'd be safe. That was exactly how that worked.

Although _how_ she would convince him was still beyond her. The plan was a work in progress.

' _And you don't think that you should have maybe figured this out… I don't know, before walking in the Senate building?"_ Ketros demanded, still filling the vital role of Michelle's personal peanut gallery.

' _No. Shut up.'_ Michelle replied, walking into the Senate building with her non-existent plan, following the cheerfully oblivious Anakin.

' _If you die, I'm making your afterlife so miserable. Now focus on keeping yourself alive, alright? Or else. I could do things to you. Terrible things.'_

That Ketros. Always great for motivation. Such a good friend.

* * *

As Coltin walked through the halls of the Temple, he was fairly certain his life was supposed to be flashing before his eyes.

Because while bitching out Zinnia's master was a seemingly simple task, when he decided to go through with it, he had forgotten a very important point. Namely, he was about ninety percent certain that her response to the bitching out would be to just kill him. And he had no doubt that she could get away with it too.

…Why was he going to go bitch at one of the most terrifying people in the temple?

Ah right. Because her padawan hurt his padawan.

Honestly the things he did for Michelle.

And this had all the potential of being the last thing he ever did. Fun fun. Because Ria Ardous was a lot of things, and willing to put up with shit was not one of them.

But despite all that, here he was. In front of her door. Knocking. Quite possibly going to his death.

Or just being a melodramatic fuckhead. That was also entirely possible.

The door opened, answered by a serious looking woman. She was tall, and her gold blonde hair was long, hanging in loose curls down her back. Her tunics were a deep, dark shade of blue, with her pants and gloves both pitch black, and her tall boots were made of a sturdy, dark brown leather. In one of her gloved hands, she held a silver lightsaber hilt. Judging by the irritated look in her unnaturally black eyes, the lightsaber being in hand to open the door was a threat on some level.

Considering Ria… this was probably her standard greeting.

"Andross. What do you want?" She said, raising an eyebrow slightly. It did not make her expression more open.

They had worked together a handful of times before, mostly due to their padawans friendship, and met outside of missions more times, also due to their padawans friendship. The padawans friendship was not reflected in their masters.

It wasn't that Coltin was opposed to the idea of making friends. Quite the opposite, in fact. Ria, on the other hand, was less than interested. She refused to be anything but cool and professional on missions, and outside of them was dismissive of any attempt at niceties, firmly keeping everybody at arm's length or more. Not to mention the fact that in combat, she was an unholy terror that Coltin could barely keep up with. And considering the rumours he'd heard about her extra-curricular activities…

Yeah. Coltin felt no shame in admitting the fact that Ria Ardous scared the living shit out of him. He was fairly certain it was a common sentiment through people who knew her.

"It's about our padawans. I need to talk to you." He said firmly, pretending to be a normal Jedi knight that was definitely not wondering if she could smell fear. She seemed like the sort of person who could.

Her expression shifted slightly, irritation turning into suspicion. She examined him for a long moment, before nodding, and stepping aside to let him enter.

As expected, she didn't bother with any pleasantries, instead silently directing him to the couch. Really, she was such a charmer. Jedi of the year.

"Zinnia's out right now. What is it?" Ria said, sitting across from him, and holding her usual expression of mostly unreadable, with distinct undertones of unimpressed.

"Something happened on their trip. Zinnia hurt Michelle, and I need you to do something about it."

"…Meaning?"

"I don't know. What do you usually do when she's in trouble?"

"It varies on the situation. Can you provide any other details, or are you only throwing vague accusations?"

"I'm not- look. Michelle was barely able to talk, she was crying so hard. All I managed to get out of her was that they had an argument, and Zinnia pushed it too far. I realize that it's not my place to punish your padawan, so I'm telling you what happened so you can handle it. Okay?"

Ria leaned back slightly, and frowned, looking off to the side, clearly trying to work something out.

"Zinnia returned upset as well. Extremely upset. She didn't exactly offer a coherent explanation, but I got the basics. I… I will speak with her when she returns, and go on from there. Is that enough for you?"

"Yeah. Um, that sounds fair. We should let them have some space from each other, and then see if they're willing or able to fix things." Coltin said awkwardly, thrown somewhat off guard by Ria being immediately willing to work with him on the matter.

"Good idea. I'll message you any further updates. You get back to your padawan, and I'll wait here to speak with mine."

The dismissal was clear, and Coltin stood to leave. Before reaching the door, his lack of self-preservation kicked in, and he turned around again, giving Ria a curious look.

"Uh, thanks by the way. For taking this at face value. I know you don't like me, so I wasn't really… expecting that? I don't know."

She sighed, her hard expression shifting into something much closer to tired and regretful.

"It's… not you, Andross. I'm not interested in having any friends, and I honestly think it's better if I don't. Doesn't mean that I'm not willing to work with others. Sorry I've given off that impression. …Why are you staring at me like that?"

"Ria! You can be nice!"

"Fuck you, I'm never nice. Get out of my apartment."

"Okay."

And with that, he got out of her apartment.

"Okay. That went well." He muttered to himself, grinning slightly. Because really, it had gone _much_ better than how he had been expecting it to go.

So. Time to go back to the apartment and check on how Michelle was doing. She hadn't seemed up to leaving the apartment, or even really her room.

* * *

Michelle's leg was bouncing.

She didn't want it to be bouncing. If it was up to her she would not be bouncing her leg. It was getting her looks from various senators and aides passing by, and Anakin was starting to look mildly concerned, but her goddamn leg was goddamn bouncing.

If anybody asked, she was stimming away the anxious energy over meeting the Chancellor who knew about her insane conspiracy theories. In reality, she was quite possible walking into her death, and that kind of nerve wracking bullshit required a bouncy leg. It was out of her hands.

' _Not sure why you're so frightened about the dying thing. It's not that bad, and you've already done it once.'_ Ketros pointed out, apparently feeling like being unhelpful.

' _Yeah, no, dying was fucking awful and I'd like to avoid it, if you don't mind. I'm nervous, fuck off.'_

' _Fucking off.'_

Smartass.

So, Michelle sat. Her leg bounced. And she waited to quite possibly be fucking murdered by a fucking Sith Lord.

Although, really, if she was going to die, that would be a suitably dramatic way to go out. Hopefully she'd get the sweet ass Viking funeral she wanted. Had she updated her will? Did she even have a will?

…Had she gotten a Viking funeral back on Earth? Michelle had been very clear about that particular wish of hers, and it had better have gotten fulfilled.

Her mind was getting off topic.

She firmly dragged herself back on topic, and reinforced her shields for good measure, because holy _fuck_ , that was the Chancellor, this was it. Sink or swim. Cover her ass or get her face melted off by lightning.

Fun fun.

Why was she doing this again?

Oh, right. To stop him from indirectly trying to kill her.

"Anakin! Excellent to see you again, my boy. Come in, come in. And who's this?" Palpatine said, escorting the two teenager into his office. Michelle wasn't fooled in the slightest, being fairly certain that he knew exactly who she was.

"This is my friend Michelle. The one I told you about? Well, I mentioned that I told her that you thought her conspiracy theory was funny, and she kind of freaked out, so I invited her along to meet you and see that you weren't mad or anything." Anakin said cheerfully, completely oblivious to the probable fucking murder that was bound to go down soon.

"I see. Well, it's nice to meet you Padawan Ketros. Not to worry, I can take a joke."

Yeah, she was willing to bet that he really couldn't. Sith were notoriously petty. And they both knew that this wasn't a joke. Still, she forced a smile, and a shaky nod, not trusting her voice.

Suddenly, his kindly features shifted into something more concerned, and he started to look through the slight clutter on his desk, checking various datapads for something.

"Everything alright Chancellor?" Anakin asked, watching the older man look around his desk.

"Quite alright, I just seem to have misplaced a datapad I believe I need for a meeting. Oh dear, I believe I've left it in the other room…" Palpatine trailed off, frowning slightly. Anakin hopped to his feet before the man could get up.

"I'll go get it for you, don't worry!" He said cheerfully, before heading out the doors.

Leaving Michelle and Palpatine alone.

Fuck.

She shoved aside the feeling that her blood was freezing in her veins, summed up her courage, and decided to get it the fuck over with.

"So. Darth Sideous, huh?" She said with a forced casual tone, trying to sound like someone that was not seconds away from a panic attack.

"I'd like to know how you acquired that particular information, yes." He replied. His voice hadn't really changed, but the earlier warmth was gone, replaced with a cold tone that set Michelle's instincts screaming with danger.

So, she did the only sane thing. She drew her shields up, took a breath, and bullshitted like her life depended on it. Mainly because it really kind of did.

"That's something I'm keeping to myself, and I'd appreciate it if you'd stop trying to kill me for having the knowledge. Especially as I've got a deadmans switch that will share that knowledge with a great deal of powerful people if I'm killed. Just saying, my continued existence is a win-win."

She did not have a deadmans switch, but she _really should_. That was the trick to lying to Force sensitives, Zinnia had said once. Even though what you're saying isn't true, you just need to make it feel like it is. Claiming you've already done something you seriously mean to do is an easy way to accomplish this.

He gave her a long, deeply unfriendly look, clearly thinking it over. And hopefully buying her blatant bullshit.

"And I should add that killing me here would do absolutely nothing except turn Anakin against you, and you don't want that, now do you?"

"You continue to have information that should be beyond you. How does one amnesia stricken Jedi brat learn all of this, and leave no sign that she has?"

"Stubbornness, boredom and balls of steel mostly." She deadpanned, despite the background voice of Ketros screaming at her to _stop baiting the fucking Sith Lord you Force damned idiot_.

Something dark and _wrong_ brushed against her mental shields, and she choked on air for a second, grabbing at her head and doubling over from the brief stabbing pain it had caused, gone almost as soon as it began.

"D-don't want to do that either, if Anakin comes back to find me screaming on the floor he's bound to have some awkward questions." She forced out through gritted teeth, a headache blooming up in response to the touch, despite the fact that Palpatine's probe had barely made contact with her mind, more of a threat than an actual attempt to find answers. She made a mental note to also shore up her shielding, because her current set up would barely be a speedbump for the Sith lord, and _holy fuck_ she was out of her league here.

Right as she straightened up, Anakin came back in.

"Found the datapad- Hey, are you alright Michelle? You're really pale…"

"Fine." She said through gritted teeth, forcing a smile. "The Chancellor just mentioned my classes and the fact that I've got an exam next week totally just blindsided me. Again. This denial thing is not working out, I swear…"

The rest of the meeting continued as normal, or as normal as things could get while sitting with a fucking sith lord that had already tried to kill you. Anakin and Palpatine did most of the talking, with Michelle chiming in whenever she was sure she wasn't going to freak out. Finally, the Chancellor glanced at his chrono, claimed he had a meeting coming up, and the two padawans stood to leave.

"Oh, Padawan Ketros?" Palpatine called, right before they were about to leave the office. She turned to look back, indicating for him to continue, and valiantly keeping her cool.

"As to your exam… I think if you carry on as you are now, you should be fine."

Michelle was a smart bitch. She heard the subtext underneath the words. _As long as you stay silent, you get to live._

Well, two could play at that game.

She gave a tight smile in response, knowing damn well that her eyes were probably screaming murder.

"It helps that I already know everything."

And with that line, she walked out of the office after Anakin, mentally performing a mic drop.

' _You fucking lunatic.'_ Ketros seethed in her head, although Michelle could feel the terror underlying the anger in the words.

' _Hey man, he already knows we know. That was like, dominance struggles. Prison rules. My one liner was the equivalent of shanking a bitch to establish I wasn't fucking around.'_ She replied, trying to keep a light tone. It was much harder to put on a brave front when talking mentally, honestly.

' _Oh my god, you're gonna die. You're going to die and I'm going to laugh because I fucking called it.'_ Ketros said in disbelief, before doing the mental equivalent to turning away in blank shock, effectively ending the conversation.

Whatever.

Michelle had a deadmans switch to set up.

…Have set up for her.

Aw shit, she was going to have to go to Zinnia for this one, wasn't she?

* * *

 **AN: Whoo. That sure happened. Michelle bitched out Palpatine and got away with it. And lied to his face and got away with it. Advantage, Michelle.**

 **Well, stalemate really. Because she managed to mavouver both of them into a corner. If Palpatine acts, she'll set off the deadmans switch that she's going to have soon. If she acts, Palpatine will decide it's too much trouble keeping her alive, and he can deal with the effects of the switch, and he'll kill her. And if they hold that stalemate for too long, he's bound to get annoyed enough to find a way to work around the deadmans switch. So, she's bought herself some time. Palpatine is definitely interested in how she got the information she has, and that's going to fucking keep him up at night, so she's got a few years at least while he proceeds with other plans, and tries to find her source. Which, unfortunately, is a bit outside of anybody's reach, so she's got some solid leeway.**

 **So. Zinnia's master is Ria Ardous. She is… a lot of things, but the one I'm annoyed by is that here she's a side character. Believe me, I've got a personal arc and backstory for her, but it doesn't fit in Displacement, because she's mostly seen through Zinnia, and Zinnia is not kept in the loop for Ria's issues. She doesn't even fit in an interlude. I'll probably just do an accompanying oneshot or short story, posted on its own. It'll be a bit, and I'll give the heads up when I do it, so… yeah.**

 **Anyways, hope you all liked that showdown! Believe me, there's going to be many more to come. Michelle will master the art of the subtle insulting. And the less than subtle insulting. Literally, a sentence in my outline for part four is seriously "Missing filters after the long day, Michelle casually makes as many low-key 'Palpatine's a fucking Sith' jokes as she can. It's not subtle". That's going to be a fun scene to write. Palpatine's a fucking Sith pass it on.**

 **Also, this is the second last chapter of 2016. Coltin's not appearing in the next chapter, and his last action here is returning to his apartment to rest. So….**

 **#LetColtinRest2016 has WORKED! WE DID IT KIDS! HE'S RESTING!**

 **2017 is an entirely different matter altogether. #LetColtinRest2017 is going to get a lot of mileage.**

 **See you all on Friday for our last chapter before the new year!**


	23. Part 2, Chapter 9: Against the Odds

**AN: Ohhh man. Last chapter of 2016. Holy shit.**

… **And on the note of holy shit, y'know how we had 5000 hits last chapter? Well, that chapter pushed us up into 6000. I love all of you. Forreal. It's like, instant validation for me.**

 **Also, for anyone whose interested, I saw Rogue One on Christmas! It ripped me apart inside and I cried even though the ending had been spoiled for me. 10/10 would recommend go see it.**

 **Just a random detail I keep forgetting to add, but the garden Michelle keeps using to meet people in is always going to be the one that Zinnia first confronted her in way back in part 1, unless I specifically state otherwise. It's out of the way, and not large enough to hide someone, making it a very convenient place to have conversations you don't want overheard.**

 **Anyways, enjoy!**

* * *

Part 2, Chapter 9: Conspire Against the Odds

Isaac liked to consider himself a good kid. He was a responsible, rule following padawan that didn't get into trouble if at all avoidable. He attended all his classes, and had good marks in most of them as well. He was a model Jedi.

And yet, here he was. Skipping class. Like an asshole.

Really, the things he did for Michelle.

This had better be important. Normally, if a friend sent him a message that just read _"send help I need to talk to zinnia but im a weenie and cant do it"_ his immediate reaction would be to wait until after his classes. But, well, after the amnesia incident, Michelle had gotten really bad at asking for help. So it was probably a safe assumption that if she was actively asking, something was more wrong than she was letting on. Making it a right now kind of problem.

"Hey, how's girl troubles going?" He called, letting himself into the small out of the way garden that she had told him to meet her at. And, as promised, she was flopped down in the garden, face first in the grass.

That probably wasn't the best sign.

"I suffer." She said, voice muffled by the ground. Another bad sign. Great.

"Okay. What's happened." Isaac asked, sitting down beside the depressed rug that was Michelle.

"I need something programmed for me, but the only programmer I know and trust is Zinnia. So I need to make up with her, but I'm a little bitch and don't have the balls to go talk to her."

"…I see. How important is this programming thing?"

"I need to keep it very quiet, and it will literally save my life. But if it gets out that I don't have the programming thing done already, I'll be killed before it's completed. Things are a little fucked up right now. I can't explain."

Force, Michelle had gotten dramatic.

"Okay. So, what are you going to do? About Zinnia, I mean." Isaac said carefully, pulling out his comm to quietly punch in a message while she was still flopped down in the grass.

"I don't know!? Cry? Have feelings? Be a human disaster? Or, not technically human, but- oh fuck it, you know what I was getting at. I'm having at least three emotions right now, and I don't like it."

While Michelle rambled into the grass, Isaac did his best to keep his expression under control, and not alarmed. Because really, Michelle's issues with her species was a loaded subject at best, and it was just _weird_ for her to be referencing it so casually.

Really, just when he thought he had a handle on her different behavior after losing her memories, she went and pulled things like that.

But it was okay. Because he could tag out soon. As soon as the backup he had messaged showed up.

"That… that's rough man. At least three?"

"Possibly as many as seven or eight. On that note, thanks for skipping whatever class you had right now to help, you have no idea what this means to me. And maybe neither do I. It's all very emotional. The point is, thank you. You're a good friend and I don't hang out with you enough."

Not really knowing how to reply to that, Isaac settled for patting her on the shoulder.

They sat in silence for a while, until the door to the garden opened again, letting in another person.

"Hey, what did you need Isaac- oh. What the fuck man!?"

At the sound of the newcomer's voice, Michelle sat up, giving him a betrayed look.

"You son of a bitch." She said, clearly stunned by his actions. Really though, what else was she expecting him to do? Problem solved. He was the best friend.

"Michelle, Zinnia, Zinnia, Michelle. Talk out your problems, emotional honesty is your friend. Isaac out."

And with that, Isaac left the garden, leaving the two to talk out the seven or eight feelings Michelle was having. May the Force be with them.

* * *

"That complete fucker." Michelle hissed, firmly avoiding eye contact with Zinnia. Because… wow, awkward.

"What an asshole. Hope he wasn't expecting anything for his birthday, cause he's sure as shit not getting stuff from me now." Zinnia said, sounding irritated.

And they lapsed into an awkward silence.

Fuck.

This just fucking figured, didn't it? Michelle could walk into a Sith Lords office, threaten him, bullshit her way out of an actual confrontation, and then walk the fuck back out again, but she couldn't talk to Zinnia after one bad argument. Priorities. Apparently, she didn't have them!

Okay. She ripped the metaphorical bandage off then, she could do it now. She could do this.

"I need your help." Michelle forced out, still firmly staring at the ground, and trying not to have an anxiety induced meltdown. "It's about the Sith."

"Right, shit. That. Surprised you can't just kill him, that seems to be your solution to everything-"

"If I was capable of killing him, I would have done it by now! If I thought anyone else was capable of killing him, I would have told them by now! But I'm not, and neither is anyone else! Right now, I need to get myself not murdered, or at the very least, prepare for if I do get murdered, because guess who knows about me knowing! The fucking Sith Lord! That's why people tried to kill us by the way. Fucker tried to bump me off. I need you to program something so that if I die, the information I have gets sent out to very specific people. And I need to make sure that only I can access it. And I need it done fast and quiet. Is that possible?"

Zinnia frowned, taking on the look of someone who was in deep thought.

"I… think so? It'll take some work. And if it's only accessible by you once it's finished, the best way to do that would be to make an independent server, and I'd have to get Neria in for that cause I couldn't put it together, and it's technically illegal but we could probably get away with that… It's possible, but it'll take a while with just me and Neria on it. After it's done, you can just set it to transmit to specific people if it's set off. That way it wouldn't be connected to anything else until everything was sent out already, meaning it would be basically invisible. We can do it, is my point."

"…I'll admit, a lot of that went over my head. But I did catch the ending, so… good. That is good. I am… glad that this can get done. You're literally saving my life here. Thanks. Good payback for when I saved your life on Allindah-"

"Michelle, just- don't, okay? I'm gonna go find Neria and get to work. I'll keep you posted on how it's coming along. In person, so that the Sith won't know what we're up to."

"…Thank you Zinnia."

"You're welcome."

And with that, Zinnia left the garden. Friendship still very much not intact.

Fuck.

* * *

Zinnia let herself into her apartment, kicking her shoes off as quietly as possible. Because really, she was home late again, but Neria had taken some convincing, both with actually building the deadmans switch, and then not telling anybody. It took longer than she had expected.

"Padawan."

"Master! Hi! I… was hoping you wouldn't notice me coming in."

"Master Andross came by today. He's worried about your friend." Ria said, in her usual blunt tones.

"Me and Michelle… aren't really friends right now, we had a bit of a falling out-"

"Yes, that was what his concern was about."

"…Ah. I see."

"Sit down padawan. Let's talk."

* * *

 **AN: Yeah, this is a short chapter, I know. I've had some stuff going on. And honestly, I think Part 2 is going to have to be a chapter shorter than expected because wooow it's pretty much done already shit I've only got one more big moment left to handle.**

 **This isn't a problem I'll have in the future. The other parts are all much longer. Honestly, I've been mentally considering part 1 and 2 to basically be the warm up. …The 70k+ warm up. You know what I mean. Plot wise, we're still building up speed.**

 **Anyways. We're almost clear of the teenage bullshit. Literally, after we're done this part we have no more teenagers until Ahsoka and Friends come in during the Clone Wars. And even then, war tends to make teenagers start to adult pretty fast.**

 **Okay. See you all Tuesday, for what will probably be the last chapter of Part 2. Don't worry, I've got something good planned for the interlude this time. It'll clear up the rest of the revelations I've got for Zinnia and Ria.**

 **And seriously, sorry for the short chapter this time. Happy new year!**


	24. Part 2, Chapter 10: If You Love Me

**AN: Hi! So, as some of you have probably noticed, nothing went up last week. That was my fault. I had to get some work done on my teeth and I've been in a lot of pain for a while. They were working on both sides of my mouth, so I've had to get really creative to figure out how to eat without chewing or opening my mouth too wide because wow were there ever a lot of needles going in really deep to freeze everything and fuck is it sore. And I couldn't write the chapter before that because hey, guess who has a crippling phobia of needles and is getting incredibly uncomfortable just typing about them? Me. It's me. I've been very stressed and have done a lot of crying. I am a human dumpster fire. Best part is this wasn't even my wisdom teeth coming out. That's gonna happen in a year or so, because they're too close to a nerve to touch right now, but they're in there, and the little fuckers are incredible sideways. It's gonna be so much fun. Had to nurse my older sister through hers, it was so much fun, can't wait to be at her tender mercies.**

 **And speaking of horrific nightmares that we've gotten through, I'm calling it. We're done with part 2. Last chapter. We made it kids.**

 **We're not going to take a full month hiatus this time, because (obviously) I don't have NaNo to occupy my time. Instead, I'm going to take a week or so. I've got some exams to clear through (I go to a distance learning high school, kinda hard to explain but it means I mostly work alone and at my own pace on courses, and write the exams whenever I'm ready. So I've got two Social Studies exams and a final that I've been saving for the last. I'll do that in the first week, and then I've got nothing until second semester starts in February. It's probably going to go that I take a week or two, put up Interlude 2 at some point, and then start up Part 3 after like… a week and a half, maybe two weeks.**

 **Chapter titles for this part were from This Is Gospel by Panic! At the Disco. Love that band.**

 **I'm pretty excited for the start of part 3. The first half is mostly focusing on 'here's everyone after the long timeskip let's get re-aquainted and do some character development', while the second one can mostly be summed up as 'surprise fuckers bet you didn't expect me to do THAT with the canon plot!'**

 **Warning/reminder in advance, I'm still a dick. That's never changing. There's gonna be some dick moves happening.**

 **Also, fun fact, part 3 is where we start getting a bodycount! Yay! I mean, technically Ketros and Michelle are both very dead, but let's be real here they're still around so it doesn't count. I'm defining dead here as they died and are no longer able to interact with any character or influence the narration. Another fun fact: I totally planned to have Ketros be a bit of a starter antagonist and 'die' at the end of part 1, but her particular brand of bitching is just so much fun I had to keep her around and make her a protagonist. At least, for now anyways. It's entirely possible that her original characterization just kicks in later. You never know.**

 **Well, enough ominous forshadowing. Enjoy the conclusion of part 2!**

* * *

Part 2, Chapter 10: If You Love Me Let Me Go

"Delivery." Zinnia deadpanned, standing at the door beside Neria.

"…Okay, that's… not exactly what I expected." Michelle said, attempting to sound diplomatic, and probably failing.

"Excuse you, this is a work of art. A very heavy work of art, let us in before I drop it on your foot." Neria snapped, arms starting to strain slightly. Michelle promptly got out of the way, letting the twins into her apartment with the… whatever it was they were carrying.

Yeah, it was probably for the best that Michelle had casually arranged for this to happen with Coltin out of the apartment. She didn't feel like answering the many, many questions seeing this would have brought.

With a bit of manoeuvering, they managed to wrangle it into Michelle's room, and sat it down in the corner. Michelle was looking forwards to inevitably stubbing her toes on it while pacing.

"There you are. One dead mans switch, completely secure. Let me tell you, it's not easy building this kind of server, especially making it completely independent. A professional could probably make this in half the time, and a lot more compact, but… I am not a professional." Neria said, shrugging slightly and gesturing to the thing she had built.

"…It looks kinda like an ice cream maker." Michelle deadpanned.

"It's not. Use it as one and I will hurt you, this thing was so much work. Do you know how many all-nighter's I pulled, searching through the holonet to try and find blue prints for this sort of thing? Or even advice? Because I don't know. I pulled so many, time has lost its meaning to me. I'm pretty sure at least three of the better sources I found were completely illegal, and I don't even care anymore, that's how tired I am."

Zinnia and Michelle exchanged worried looks.

"Maybe you should go sleep Neria."

"I should, shouldn't I? You explain how this thing works, the programming's all you. Good night."

And with that Neria left the apartment. Which was probably for the best, she had been looking distinctly worse for wear. And like she had been living off caffeine and spite for a while.

Okay, so maybe asking Neria to build something outside of her speciality with no help was a bit of a stretch in terms of demands. Michelle would do something for her. Something nice.

"I hope she can get home. I'm pretty sure she's on hour fifty something of no sleep." Zinnia commented, looking mildly concerned.

…Yeah, Michelle would have to do something _really_ nice for Neria.

"So, here's how it works. Fingerprint reader here, responds to your prints and your prints only. It also checks DNA off the surface skin cells while scanning the print, so if someone tries to put in your fingerprint, but doesn't have your specific blend of human clawdite DNA? Bitch ain't opening. I figure that's strong security, right? Anyways, scan any of your prints, I put them all in the system just in case. After that, you just put in as much information as you want, punch in everyone it's getting dumped to in the event of your death, and blam. One dead mans switch. It checks the Temple records once a week, and if your file marks you as dead, it'll send out everything it has. Worst case scenario, you can trigger it manually by altering your file to read you as dead, and then waiting. So… don't let yourself be declared dead unless you're actually dead, or want the information to dump. And for the record, if you go missing, I'll give you a year with no contact before I let you be marked down as dead. You're the only one who can access it, and it has more than enough storage space to fit all the data you'll ever need. Neria built it as tough as possible, so this thing could probably survive a bomb, although I wouldn't recommend testing that out. Also, referring to it as a dead mans switch got really depressing after the first week, because… thinking of a friend dying is depressing. So instead, I've been calling it the Goes To Shit Switch. Because you activate it if everything goes to shit. I'm funny. Anything you missed in that long ramble?"

Michelle blinked, before nodding slowly.

"No, no, I think I've got it. Uh… we're friends again?"

"Seriously, that's your takeaway? Yeah we're cool again. I- I mean, I'm cool if you're cool, if you're still mad at me, that's okay, I get it-" Zinnia stammered out, clearly somewhat nervous about how the situation was playing out.

"No, no, I'm not mad at you anymore." Michelle said quickly, not wanting to lose the olive branch being presented to her. "Just… not sure what changed your mind over the last month."

"Okay. So after you first asked me to make this for you, I had a talk with my Master. And it basically boiled down to her ordering me to think through exactly what happened until I could put together what went wrong. And… Force, this is hard. Michelle, I'm sorry. I… I was expecting you to be somebody that you're not, and holding you to a standard that you couldn't possibly meet. That was wrong. I shouldn't have expected you to be her, and looking back… you're not. You're you, and Ketros is Ketros, and I shouldn't have assumed that just because you look and sound like her, you are her. Sorry."

"I'm sorry too. Us getting together was… well, a mistake. Sorry that I rushed into that, and dragged you into all of this mess. And I'm glad that we can be friends again."

"Aw, fuck, now I'm getting all emotional. C'mere you."

And with that, Zinnia pulled Michelle into a tight hug, which she gladly replied.

It was a very nice hug.

* * *

 **AN: Aaaand close on Michelle and Zinnia hugging it out. D'aaw.**

 **Anyways, for those of you that couldn't tell, there was a month timeskip between this chapter and the last one. It's not really important, just means it took a while to build the deadmans switch, which I have impulsively named the Goes To Shit Switch because that's basically it's purpose. Will it ever activate? Dunno. For now at least, it's purpose isn't to activate, it's purpose is to be a good threat to keep Palpatine from killing Michelle, and to buy her some time to get less defenseless. When you're up against a Sith lord, you kind of want to be able to defend yourself both in the mind games and in the actual fighting.**

 **And yes, Zinnia/Michelle just sunk. For good. Sorry kids, it's all platonic in that corner. Got ya!**

 **Anyways, see you all in a few years.**

… **In story years that is to say. See you all in like a week for the interlude, which is going to be Zinnia centric, and finish filling out parts of her character. After that, see you in like another week for Part 3, which picks up a few years after Part 2. Hey, I did promise an end to the teen drama, didn't I? Say goodbye to Emotional Teenager Michelle, because after this all we're going to be seeing is Frantically Pretending To Be A Real Adult Michelle, and that's a fun Michelle to write.**

 **Anyways, thank you to the** _ **seven thousand**_ **people who have read this story (holy shit by the way), and again, sorry for missing all of last week and updating out of schedule… you get the point. It's been a great start to the new year for me.**

 **And as cliché as it sounds, I love all of you in the most platonic sense possible. Hashtag single and don't want to mingle.**

… **Yes that is the note I want to end part 2 shut up I do what I want.**


	25. Interlude: Truth Be Told

**AN: Hello! We are here and this is a thing that is happening! See, this is up a lot faster than interlude 1 went up. Meant what I said about a shorter break this time guys.**

 **Quick facts: This is all pre-Displacement. Unlike the other interlude, it's got a lot of Ketros, because it's Zinnia centric, and Ketros is a large influence in Zinnia's life. Cough gay cough. For the record, I refer to her only as Michelle in this. It's not our Protagonist Michelle, this is Ketros. She's getting referred to as Michelle because the body switch hasn't happened yet, and this is mostly from a young Zinnnia's perspective, and she wouldn't refer to her best friend by her last name. That would be weird. Trust me, I'm not confused, I've got her down as Ketros throughout the outline of this.**

 **On a random note, while I really like FF dot net's formatting better than AO3, I really wish that FF didn't have chapter title limits. Because I know this one Star Wars author of AO3 that does like, three line title for every chapter and they're so beautiful. If I could get away with that shit, I wouldn't be here pulling song lyrics out of my ass I MEAN specifically choosing them to definitely relate to a chapter and totally not selecting a song for an entire part just because I think that one specific line will make a really deep chapter title. That's not what's happening. That would be weird.**

 **Also fun fact in one of the parts I do some really creative butchering to the song lyrics in question in order to get one specific line to match up with an exact chapter. Mostly because the line mentions something that a character loses in that chapter, I'm pretty sure it'll be horrifying for you all, and it makes me giggle anytime I see it in my outline. I think I'm a delight.**

 **Also yes, Ketros did go by the nickname of 'Chelle around her friends, and yes Michelle will probably get saddled with it as well. No, she's probably not going to be thinking with portals, and come part 3 Earth's going to be old memories for her. Considerably less references will be made, and the ones left will not be the highest comedy ever. I'm talking weed jokes.**

 **I'm actually talking the ultimate weed joke, which I have absolutely just done because it makes me happy inside, and honestly the set up I use** _ **had**_ **to have existed in canon, it's only fair I hand it to the only person in the universe that can properly appreciate it. Michelle's going to be muffling a lot of snickers in part 3. Ketros is very disappointed in her. And no I'm not telling you what the ultimate weed joke is, all I'm saying is that you'll know it when you see it, and I'll drag it out until it stops being funny, and then I'll keep going anyways because I can and I want to.**

 **This interlude is Zinnia centric, and addresses the last bits of her specific circumstances that I haven't brought up yet. Fair warning, it is entirely based off of EU stuff, and not something confirmed in canon yet. Or probably ever. But is hasn't been disproved, so that's good enough for me. Hey, I know I'm not the only author that's playing fast and loose with what's canon and what's isn't. How many of you consider Xanatos to be canon? He's never shown his face outside of the EU. But we put him in anyways. Note, I love Xanatos and he's an amazing character, and one of these days I'll get around to writing something where he plays a large role in it and also has Tensions with Obi-Wan because that's never not fantastic to me. I've gotten off topic. The point is, I've got some EU stuff thrown in here, it'll be explained after the chapter.**

 **For the record, Zinnia and Neria don't actually have last names. This is because I can't think of one that fits them. So I'm handwaving it by saying that in their culture, last names just aren't a thing. Like the Inuit, part of their culture is that everyone only has one name, so the Canadian government assigned them numbers, which was super fucked up. So that's not happening here, Neria is just Neria, Zinnia is just Zinnia, and we're leaving it at that.**

 **Also, for the record. On the tenth, I received an anonymous review from a guest. I immediately removed it for being disgustingly islamophobic. Fun fact. Most Muslims? Aren't terrorists! In fact, in North America, you're most likely to be murdered by a Christian white boy that somebody told no to, so they decided to shoot up a building. That's your average terrorist. And the phrase 'Allahu Akbar'? Literally is just a religious phrase. It's the Islamic equivalent to 'Amen'. Basically, that kind of racism is completely unacceptable. Also, fun fact! Part 3 introduces a new character, who joins the main cast. Guess what, she wears a hijab. The entire time. Because I'm loosely basing her homeworlds culture off of muslim culture. And she's not a terrorist, because it's almost like Islam has a very low rate of extremism, and it only looks high because it's one of the largest religions in the world. And said extremists are blatantly contradicting the Quaran. And the only reason they became such a problem is because they were funded** _ **by the American government**_ **during the Cold War, because the Taliban were founded by conservative Islamic extremists who objected to the communist government giving women full rights, and supporting scientific and medical advances. And the American government objected to the communist government over anything else, so they backed the Taliban. Seriously. Everything happening in the middle east with ISIS and whatnot right now can be traced back to America. Basically, I'm not tolerating any sort of discriminatory bullshit here. You're not funny. Think before you speak.**

 **Also, wisdom teeth coming out is a surgery dumbass. Nobody does it on laughing gas, you need to be completely put under with an anesthesiologist.**

 **Anyways, asshole anons aside (why do I keep getting those?), enjoy!**

* * *

Interlude 2: Truth Be Told

The garden was full of toddlers.

This wasn't entirely unusual, as the garden was close to the creche, and it was just a general fact that it would usually have multiple children of varying ages running around it. This time, is was around fifty toddlers, from a few different clans. Needless to say, it was extremely loud. The handful of Masters supervising didn't seem to mind, due to the fact that they usually worked with children, and they were all extremely adorable.

Most were playing in groups, but one girl was alone, sitting on the edge of a shallow creek, and idly kicking her bare feet in the water. She was watching the other younglings play, not so much with envy, but with a quiet interest. This was fine, as she preferred to be alone anyways.

Her solitude was quickly broken with another child running up to her and grabbing her in a hug.

"Gah! What!?" The girl yelped, pushing the other kid off. The child beamed at her.

"Neria! You looked lonely, I'm cheering you up!"

"...Who's Neria?"

"You are, silly!"

"Um… no I'm not. I'm Zinnia. Who are you?"

The other kid scowled.

"Neria, don't pretend. You know we're friends."

"But I'm not Neria!"

"But you look just like her!"

"You're weird. Leave me alone." Zinnia muttered, shoving the child away and returning to dipping her feet in the water. The other child gave her a long, questioning look, before running off again.

About ten minutes later, the child returned, dragging along another girl.

"See! Look! There's this girl that looks just like you, it's so cool!" She said, looking at her friend. Zinnia sighed, looked up-

And came face to face with… herself?

No. There were some small differences. The other girl's hair was slightly longer, and black opposed to Zinnia's brown, and she was wearing slightly different clothes. But beyond that, she was identical to Zinnia.

"Woah, you weren't kidding 'Chelle. Hi! I'm Neria! Sorry my friend bugged you. You look just like me, that's so cool!"

"Hi. I'm Zinnia. ...Have we met before? You feel kind of familiar…"

Neria shrugged.

"Dunno. Feels like I know you, but I don't think we've met before…"

"Maybe you guys are twins?" 'Chelle suggested, grinning a bit. The girls exchanged looks.

"...That… sounds right." Zinnia said slowly, feeling that it was true.

"I don't think so. They'd tell us, right?" Neria said, frowning slightly.

"Nah. The masters usually keep siblings apart, even twins."

"Sounds like something from a story though. Long lost twins."

"Y'know what? I'm gonna go ask." Zinnia said, getting up. She ran across the garden over to her creche master, and tugged on his robe to get his attention.

"What is it Zinnia?" He asked, leaning over with a smile.

"Do I have a twin sister?"

The masters smile faltered slightly, before recovering.

"No, why would you ask that?"

Zinnia frowned.

"You're lying."

"Why do you say that?"

"I- I don't know. I just know that you're lying. Neria is my twin, isn't she?"

Zinnia didn't wait for a response, and instead returned to 'Chelle and Neria.

"Yup, we're twins."

Neria gasped.

"Oh my gosh! We are!? That's so cool!" She exclaimed, before grabbing Zinnia in a hug. After a surprised moment, Zinnia hugged back. It didn't take long for the other kid to join in as well.

"Yay! I helped my friend find her sister! And sorry for mistaking you for Neria, Zinnia. I'm Michelle. Let's all be friends!"

Within a few minutes, the three children were happily playing together, running around, laughing and shrieking. None of them noticed the two masters watching the trio.

"Well that's odd. Zinnia's usually my anti-social one. I'm glad she's making friends though. Those two yours?" Zinnia's master asked, looking over at the woman beside him. She smiled.

"Yes, Michelle and Neria. They're nice, they should be good company for yours. Zinnia and Neria are twins, right?"

"Yeah. Not sure how, but Zinnia figured it out. She's got a gift for just… knowing things."

"Huh. Might be something to keep an eye on."

"I'm already doing it, yeah. I worry about her, y'know? She's a blunt kid, and tends to just blurt out everything she knows. Makes it hard to bond with the other younglings. I mean, she's a good kid, just not good with other kids."

"Yeah, I've had a few kids like that. At least she seems to be making friends now? So that's something."

"That certainly is something."

Across the garden, Zinnia, Michelle and Neria continued playing, oblivious to the attention of their masters.

* * *

A few months later, Zinnia's creche master sat down with the four year old.

"Zinnia, I've noticed you don't really get along with your clanmates." He said bluntly. Everything the man in question tended to do was blunt, and the honesty tended to endear him to his young charges.

"Nah. They all think I'm weird, cause I can know things when they can't. So I don't play with them. Michelle and Neria are my friends though!" She said, perking up slightly.

"Yes, about that. There's a free space in their clan, and their master has offered to take you in, if you want. To be with your friends."

The young girls eyes grew almost comically wide, clearly floored by the offer.

"You- you mean I can be with Michelle and Neria? All day!?" She yelped, excitement starting to shine through her usual surly demeanour.

"All day. I'm guessing you want to move?"

"Duh. Can I get my stuff now? I'm getting my stuff now."

And with that, the little girl sprinted off to collect her things, not bothering to wait for permission. Which, really, had been pretty much what her creche master expected.

* * *

Zinnia had fit in much better with a new clan.

Her new creche master had been given a full run down on the girl's personality by her old master, and her typical moody nature had melted away with the presence of friends, replaced with an open, cheerful disposition.

Not that it was perfect.

While she was no longer completely isolated, there was still a definite divide between her and the rest of her crechemates. Zinnia's tendency for immediately calling out lies was still very much something she did, and while she was slowly gaining subtlety, it was still… unnerving.

And, after reviewing some files, it became clear that Zinnia's knowledge wasn't uncanny. It was _completely impossible_.

One of the options was that Zinnia had somehow gotten her young hands on a ridiculous amount of information. Which seemed unlikely, as quite a few times she had been able to recognize she was being lied to, but not unable to tell what was actually the truth.

The other option was the Force. As always with Jedi who had problems that couldn't be explained. In all fairness, it made sense to blame confusing things on the Force, as roughly seventy five percent of the time it was the Force.

Hence Zinnia being tested by the Council, with her crèche master waiting outside.

After around two hours, the young girl came back out, accompanied by Master Windu, whose expression was slightly more serious than usual.

Oh boy.

"Zinnia dear, can you sit on the bench over there for a moment? I need to talk with Master Windu." The crèche master said quietly, giving the little girl a warm smile. Zinnia shrugged, and wandered over to the bench in question, apparently tired enough to not bother questioning things.

"So?" The crèche master asked quietly, stealing a glance at the oblivious child.

"She's got a Force ability. Perfect lie detector. She hears a lie, she knows. Mind you, she just knows that she's being lied to, what exactly the truth is isn't part of things. Still, it's a powerful ability. Keep an eye on that one." He instructed, before returning to the chamber.

Sighing, the crèche master turned back to her charge, and went to escort her back home. The poor kid was in need of a nap.

Unfortunately, despite being excellent with younglings, Zinnia's crèche master had one fatal flaw, in that she was an unrepentant gossip. And one with the tendency to happily brag about the children under her care to all of her friends, and anyone that would listen. And this situation was no different.

Needless to say, within a week almost the entire Temple knew.

* * *

"So… you've got a Force ability." Michelle said, sitting down beside Zinnia. She didn't respond, which was probably a good sign. If she wanted to be left completely alone, her reaction to being joined would have been considerably angrier. And, knowing Zinnia, probably would have involved some incredibly low blows in an attempt to make Michelle go away. As she tended to do when upset and wanting to be left alone.

It probably wasn't the best trait for a Jedi to have, but nobody was perfect, and in the long run, being a dick to be left alone when you want to be alone isn't really the worst character flaw in the world to have. Just means more potential apologies.

...And Michelle was ruminating on her friends personality quirks instead of actually talking to her about the thing she had meant to talk about. She was the best friend ever. Ten out of ten.

"From the gossip I've heard it's a pretty rare ability. You're going to be drowning in masters. Makes the rest of us look bad."

"Thanks Michelle, twist the knife some more why don't you." Zinnia snapped, although her tone wasn't really angry. Tired and irritated were closer to the emotions she was giving off.

"Look, it's not like it changes anything. You've always been like this, the masters just confirmed it."

"Confirmed it and told everyone. Not happy about that by the way."

"You wanna talk? What parts are you not happy about?"

"Thanks captain therapist. So it all started with my mother." Zinnia deadpanned, rolling her eyes. Michelle stayed silent, waiting for Zinnia to open up.

"...I don't like that everybody knows that I've got different abilities. I don't like that there's going to be different expectations for me now. And that so many masters are going to want me as their padawan."

"...Generally, that's a good thing."

"Yeah, but none of them want _me_ as their padawan. They just want to be the ones to train the kid with the special shiny powers. Gonna be really hard to weed out someone good from all that."

Michelle sighed, shifting to sit closer to her.

"You're going to be incredibly picky about this, aren't you."

"Yup."

"Alright then. Well, no matter what you choose, I'm here for you." Michelle said, slinging a friendly arm across Zinnia's shoulder. It was returned, and the two younglings spent a long moment just sitting there, arms around each other.

* * *

"Zinnia! Zinnia oh Force guess what, guess what, guess what!" Michelle yelled, slamming open the door to her friends room. For some strange inexplicable reason, Zinnia was surprised by the sudden loud entereance, and reacted by jumping, narrowly avoiding sending the machine she was working on crashing to the ground.

"What? I'm programming Neria's unholy backlog of projects that need code to work. Seriously, I am trying so hard, but she just can't figure out how to do her own damn code, it's ridiculous!"

"...Last week you literally got confused about the difference between a wrench and a screwdriver."

"It's confusing, those are confusing things. What do you want?"

"Right! Guess what happened while I was totally not skipping class to help Seha break rules!"

"... _Seha_ wanted you to help her break rules." Zinnia said, eyebrows raised to silently call bullshit.

"I can hear your disbelief, it's silent but I hear it. That hurts me. Hurts me right here. She's on a medical leave, no sparring on pain of angry healers. I was helping her blatantly flout those rules because she's a fanatic and I'm just terrible. Anyways! Some knight dude came in and kicked Seha out cause injuries, and we sparred and it was awesome and he didn't have a padawan but now he does because he decided to take me as his padawan! Totally on a whim! Can you believe that!?"

"Did you get an adult male clone and not tell us?" Zinnia deadpanned, although a grin was pulling at her lips. Michelle's unimpressed look in response was absolutely worth it.

"Okay you being not funny at all aside, I'm a padawan! I am an actual literal padawan and everything is amazing, and I'm not even in trouble because we fudged the times a little and claimed that I was totally only skipping class just for the whole padawan thing, and I never helped Seha flout medical procedure. Because that would be weird. Ha ha. Ha."

"Let me be proud of you, shut up and hug me you hooligan."

Michelle promptly shut up, and grabbed Zinnia in an enthusiastic hug.

After a moment of hugging, Zinnia pulled back, and flicked Michelle's new braid.

"I'm glad you've found a master 'Chelle." Zinnia said warmly, grinning.

"Now it's just you left that needs a master."

"...I'm telling Isaac you said that."

"He doesn't count, he's too young, he can't have an apprentice. Be an apprentice. I'm very excited, talking is not my best trait right now."

"I'm definitely telling Isaac that you said he didn't count."

"And I'm telling you to shut up, and also you're deflecting. What _is_ your supposed criteria for masters anyways? Because you've had like, at least a hundred offers. Maybe more. And you tell them all to piss off."

"I chase them off with my sparkling wit and winning personality."

"Zinnia. Seriously. What's the wait? Do you… do you want to age out into the agricorps? Because… I'd miss you, but if that's what you want to do-"

"No. Maybe? I don't know. I don't want to go into the agricorps, but I don't want a master that I don't like. You get it?"

"...I guess? It kind of makes sense. I don't know. Look, I just stopped in to share the news cause I knew your classes were done by now. I have to go get my stuff and get moved and all, okay? I'll see you sometime tomorrow. Bye!"

And with that, Michelle left Zinnia's room, heading for her own.

Zinnia thought about following her, but decided against it. She had programming to finish. Michelle would be fine without her.

And maybe a bit more distance would help her with getting through the massive Force-damned crush she had been developing on her best friend.

* * *

Zinnia was, technically speaking, not supposed to be doing what she was doing.

At that moment, she was supposed to be doing the same thing most of her agemates were doing, specifically sleeping, as it was sometime after midnight. Instead, she had decided she was too restless to sleep, and snuck out to go wandering in the Temple. Wandering had turned into laying around in a deserted garden, enjoying the cool night air.

And her restlessness was totally not from her being lonely. It definitely wasn't because Michelle, Seha and Neria were all busy with Padawan stuff while she was stuck with Isaac. And is absolutely was not because she specifically missed Michelle.

...Yeah, her crush was getting worse. Fantastic.

"Hello."

At the quiet greeting, Zinnia yelped, scrambling to her feet, and staring at the Master in front of her with wide eyes.

The woman was tall, with long, golden blonde hair, and by most standards probably qualified as quite pretty. Despite this, she had a serious set to her face, and her eyes were… strange. Zinnia was fairly certain humans could not have completely black irises. Probably creepy to most, but Zinnia found it kind of cool.

Still, she was clearly a master, and Zinnia was clearly breaking curfew.

"...Hi." Zinnia said slowly, fairly certain she was about to be in a great deal of trouble.

"You're Zinnia, right? I've been meaning to talk to you. Please, sit." The master said, her tone polite as she sat down on the grass, gesturing for Zinnia to join her. Despite this, it was clear that she was not going to be accepting of any arguments.

Zinnia sat down beside her.

"I've been keeping an eye on you. Dozens of prospective masters, all refused. Why? With your gifts-"

"Because that's all anybody ever cares about. They just want to train the kid with the special ability. I don't wanna be someone's freaking trophy."

The woman nodded, an understanding look on her face. That was new.

"That's fair. What I was going to say, is that with your personality and abilities, up to and including your lie detection, I think you're best suited to a… less conventional path as a Jedi. I've been keeping an eye on you for some time."

Zinnia paused, giving the woman a considering look.

"...What are you saying?"

"Zinnia, do you know what the Shadows are?"

"...I- I mean- everyone's heard _rumours_ , sure. They- they're not. Y'know. Actually _real_. ...Are they?"

"Trust me Zinnia, they are very real. And on that note, I also trust you understand that this is not a conversation that should be repeated to your peers."

"Yeah, assumed that. Also what the hell."

"Language. Listen. I've been investigating your work. You're a brilliant programmer and slicer, you can swing a lightsaber better than most people your age, and you've shown an insightful side that is _incredibly_ rare in hormone riddled teenagers. That, combined with your natural immunity to lies, means that you would make an incredible Shadow. That is, if you're willing."

"...Are… are you trying to get me as a padawan?"

"Not necessarily. There's a handful of us without padawans that would take one right now, I just happen to be the most experienced. I could introduce you to the others if you'd like, let you make your own decision. The Council's already approved you joining us, if you choose to."

"You're a Shadow? What's it like?"

"It's… different for me. I'm the head of the Shadows, you see. I don't have much field work anymore. I assign the missions, monitor the mental state of all the others, arrange for training, and keep an eye on people inside the Temple who are considered at risk of falling. For the record, you won't be a Shadow right now. You'll be trained as a standard Jedi padawan, possibly with a few extra lessons here and there. You won't start actual Shadow training until you're a senior padawan at the least. For safety and all. It's generally a bad idea to let children too close to darkness, for some weird reason."

Zinnia snorted, mentally pegging the master as the kind of woman who enjoyed dry humour. Zinnia could respect that. And her blunt way of talking wasn't hurting either. Clearly, she took Zinnia seriously. And she had made a point of mentioning all of Zinnia's skills, with her lie detecting not being the first and only thing brought up.

Honestly, she was hitting pretty much all of Zinnia's requirements. Not to mention the quiet feeling of _right_ in the Force.

…Yeah, screw it. If Michelle could do these things on a whim, then so could Zinnia.

"Sounds fair to me. Yeah, I'd be down to try being a Shadow. Er, if you don't mind training me, that is."

The woman surprised Zinnia by smiling, the expression small but warm, and turning her solemn look into something kinder.

"Not at all. My name is Ria Ardous. I'd be honoured to have you as my Padawan, Zinnia."

* * *

 **AN: Goddamn I hate writing small children. Note to self stop doing that.**

 **Okay, so exposition. In the EU, the Shadows are a subset of the Jedi. Their job is to basically keep the Jedi accountable, and to prevent the dark side from gaining a foothold again. Basically, their job is to stop the Sith. They're super good at it. However, to really fight an enemy you need to understand it, so as a general rule the Shadows are sitting pretty firmly in the grey, while staying firmly aligned with the Jedi and the Republic. In a galaxy that (supposedly) doesn't have the Sith, they act as the Order's spies. Notable members of the Shadows included Quinlan Vos, and his master, Tholme. During the Clone Wars, obviously they were pretty damn busy, and were posing as turncoats to infiltrate the Seperatists, working to find the Sith Lord, and keeping an eye on Jedi who seemed to be straying a bit too close to the darkness.**

 **All in all, the Shadows are pretty damn cool. Their existence is kept quiet however, to the point that most of the Temple isn't sure if the Shadows are real or not. Generally speaking, the only people who know exactly who is a Shadow and who isn't is Ria, due to being the boss, and the Council. End of story. This is for their own safety, as if a threat did arise (and the Shadows are always assuming one will) and it had knowledge of the Jedi, it would obviously target the people specifically trained to take it down. Hard to do that if you don't know who the people are.**

 **So, luckily for Michelle, Zinnia is actually in a perfect position to be assisting in the fight against Palpatine. And as Ria's apprentice, once Zinnia's knighted and inducted into the Shadows for realsies, she's got a lot of trust, and will have a fair amount of lee-way to say 'hey there's a situation too delicate to even explain but I need to do this/take this/ect and I need you all to not question me great thanks'. It'll come in handy. On the flip side, Zinnia's going to spend a lot of time in the Clone Wars being away from the rest of the cast, considering that her abilities make her a natural at gathering information, and that's kind of in high demand. And if she passes the occasional tidbit of knowledge along to just Michelle, well, nobody really needs to know that.**

 **Seriously, it is ridiculously helpful to have somebody on your side that can provide reliable information 100% of the time. Clone Wars Zinnia is getting really ripped from carrying her team.**

 **And yes, Zinnia's issues around her Force ability and people's reaction to it does help her bond with Anakin, mostly due to them both understanding what it's like to feel pressured over high expectations, and being unsure if they can meet them. Also, they both have flirted with the dark side.**

 **Fun fact: In that Displacement spinoff that's still in the works? Division? Zinnia is one of the few surviving characters from Displacement. She… isn't doing great.**

 **On a completely unrelated note, I like to go into my Star Wars writing with a philosophy of anybody can turn to the dark side, if put under enough pressure. Interpret that as you will.**

 **Also, Ria absolutely has a fucked up backstory, which involves her weird eyes that Zinnia and Coltin are both unnerved by. It's not that they look bad per say, people being freaked out by them isn't their brains going 'hey that's weird', it's their old buddy the Force lowkey going 'hang on something's not right with that person'. Because something is very much not right with Ria. Aand she's a tertiary character at best, so I can't bring it up, because she tends to guard that secret with her life. I'll probably just do a bonus one shot about it? Or slip it into an interlude. Interlude 3 is kinda disconnected from the rest of the story too, it's just there to show a Michelle in her late teens, between part 2 and part 3. And to introduce a character that is needed in Division. Gotta love cross planning.**

 **Anyways. See you all in a bit when part 3 comes up! Chapters should start to get a lot longer, the outline gets more complicated as the plot thickens. Honestly, part 1 and 2 were set up, shits getting REAL now.**


	26. Part 3, Chapter 1: Welcome To Your Life

**AN: Hello! We're back at it! Man, nice to have a shorter hiatus, right?**

 **Oh my god guys. This is the REAL plot this time. It's going down. It's going the fuck down.**

 **Also YOOO 8000 HITS AND 2000 OF THOSE ON CHAPTER 1 LOVE YOU GUYS!**

 **And apparently this needs to be said. Islamaphobic anon. I'm just going to keep deleting your reviews. That shit is not acceptable here. Either read without saying anything, find a way to give reviews without being a piece of shit, or leave. Thank you.**

 **So, since this is after a long timeskip, for some weird reason, our main cast is now no longer teenagers! They've reached the terrifying realm of adulthood, although Michelle's just a senior padawan now. The concept of senior padawan is something either from EU or just a popular headcanon, but either way, I'm interpreting it to be a transition stage from padawan to knight. Senior padawans are done with most of their classes, and usually have around three or four a week. They go on a lot more missions, and are expected to be finding constructive ways to pass the time by themselves in the Temple. They also have a more relaxed dress code, letting them take the first steps into expressing themselves. People usually become senior padawans around 17-18 ish. They have more slack than a padawan, but much less than a knight. Anyways, so as a result of that, the main cast of OC's all look quite different now, and their new styles are posted on my Tumblr. As always, Gay-Blue-Space-Rock, #holy shit it's my writing. Trust me, they're looking good. Well, most of them anyways, poor Seha is one of those people where the phase of not really knowing what looks good on them lasts a long time. She figures it out just before the start the Clone Wars, and THEN damn son. Once those awful bangs are fixed.**

 **Also, on a random note that I totally just realised I forgot to add before now: Since Seha is albino, it's a little hard to tell what race she's coded as. She would be Armenian, if she was on Earth, and her last name is Ashjian. This doesn't really affect anything, as she's not on Earth, and was raised in the Temple, I just felt like sharing that fact. So... Seha's last name is Ashjian. Tell your friends. Or don't, whatever.**

 **Last note: Don't ask me when, but at some point, Displacement will go on another long hiatus, so that I can completely edit everything that's there so far, and just touch the whole thing up, possibly add new scenes if I feel like it. I'm thinking it'll be after finishing part 5 maybe? Please note that I'm only saying that because part 5 ends on a massive cliffhanger, and, I cannot stress this enough, I'm a dick. Or maybe I'll have a rare flash of nice and do the edits after I'm done? I don't know. I definitely couldn't do them and work on the story at the same time. Whatever. Hey, you guys provide your input and I'll think about it, okay?**

 **Anyways, part three! Whoo! Enjoy it my dudes!**

* * *

Part 3, Chapter 1: Welcome To Your Life

"And I want all of you to practice the kata's on your own time, as much as you feel you need to. Talk to a master if you need any help. Next class we'll be working on some flips, okay? Have a good lunch everyone!" Seha called cheerfully, herding a group of younglings towards the changing rooms. At the doors to said changing rooms, Michelle was standing, collecting the training lightsabers from each of the children, and occasionally trading goodbyes, or answering questions.

And then Michelle and Seha were alone.

Seha's cheerful smile dropped into a look of content tiredness, and she sighed, rolling her neck.

"Was it just me, or were they more hyper than usual? Did they get sweets or something?" She asked, looking over at her friend with a frown.

"Hell if I know. I swear, one of them tried biting during a practice spar. Biting! Seha, I see myself in these children, and I don't know if that's a good or bad thing." Michelle said, eyes wide with mock astonishment. Seha snorted, and shoved her.

"Michelle, you're the worst teaching assistant ever."

"I'm the teaching assistant holding a container full of nineteen practice lightsabers, who is fully capable of activating all of them and throwing them at you at once. Rephrase the sentence please."

"Michelle, you're the most violent teaching assistant ever."

"Thank you. Finally, someone who appreciates my talents. Anyways, I'm getting lunch. Care to join me?"

"No, sorry, I've got to work on assessment reports for my early morning class, I'll probably just grab some leftovers from my fridge. See you later?" Seha asked.

"Y'know, I wasn't sure if it would suit you at first, but I'm really glad you decided to start teaching classes. You've seemed a lot happier lately. And yeah, see you later." Michelle said, before trying to make a great escape for the door, and not have to acknowledge the whole feelings thing she just started. Really, she probably should get her word vomit under control someday.

"Oh! Before you go, I almost forgot! Anakin got back from his mission this morning, me, Isaac and Neria are going out for dinner with him. Are you coming?"

"Yeah, I'd love to! Put me down for a maybe though, Coltin says he needs to talk with me about something. Which isn't terrifying and ominous in the slightest. You send me the details, I'll tell you if I can't make it. Bye!"

"Bye!"

And with that, Michelle left the salles, long, wavy hair bouncing as she walked towards her and Coltin's apartment.

* * *

As cliche as it sounded, the last four years had been good to Michelle. A combination of Jedi training and fortunate genetics had led to her growing up well, awkward teenager shifting into slightly less awkward adult. She'd gotten one last minute growth spurt in, putting on a final two inches to her height, and bringing her up to five foot eleven. On the one hand, this was satisfying, because she was taller than most people. On the other hand, due to Anakin's growth spurt, Michelle had been forced to acknowledge that Obi-Wan only _looked_ short because he knew a lot of insanely tall people. And despite Michelle's normally impressive height, she was still a full inch shorter than the man.

Really, life wasn't fair.

She had been declared a senior padawan when she was seventeen, giving her a bit more leeway with the dress code, a fact which she immediately took advantage of via growing out her hair. Well, she had decided to grow it out from the second she arrived at the Temple, but being made a senior padawan just meant that Coltin stopped casually suggesting to her that maybe it was time for a haircut. Which was nice, because while she didn't look _terrible_ with short hair, she definitely preferred the long style she had kept on Earth. She also preferred her hair red, but hair dye wasn't allowed until they were knighted. Which was unfortunate, but she had waited around five years, she could wait until knighthood. However far away that was.

Michelle's knowledge of what was coming had also had some fortunate benefits, in that she threw herself into lightsaber training as if her life depended on it. Mainly due to her knowing that it really did. Seha had been ecstatic to have someone willing to go for all-out spars against her, a prospect that got increasingly daunting as Seha began to steadily increase her lightsaber count. There was overkill, and then there was dual wielding two double bladed lightsabers. Needless to say, fighting her was absolutely terrifying. But it was good practice for when Michelle inevitable tangled with Grievous, Maul, and possibly Krell, so she made a point of sparring almost daily with her. For some weird reason, Michelle had gotten pretty ripped. Fortunately for her fighting style, Michelle was built for height and weight, and tended to hit like a human battering ram. Which was always fun. Needless to say, her fighting style was a very offensive one. It was very convenient that she had the build for a heavy offense, as she remembered seeing somewhere on Earth that the best way to survive a Sith was with an offense to match theirs. Obi-Wan's ass-kicking despite staying with the primarily defensive Soresu was an exception. That, or further proof that the man was an eternal badass. Some combination of the two.

And on the note of Sith, Michelle had been fortunate to not have to actually fight any, at least not yet. Palpatine had taken her old threat of a dead mans switch seriously, and the stalemate had managed to stretch on through the years. The Sith had yet to actively move against her, which was convenient. She needed all the time to prepare that she could get.

Not that Palpatine's plans weren't continuing. As they approached the point where Michelle knew the Clone Wars would begin, the Confederacy of Independant Systems began to gain popularity and worlds, and noise was starting to be made about preparing for conflicts. The talk of rousing an army had yet to reach the senate, but Michelle knew damn well it was only a matter of time. Still, Anakin wasn't nineteen yet, giving her some time still. How long she had, that she wasn't sure of. At least a year. Hopefully.

And out on Kamino, the clones were still being steadily churned out, and prepared for war. Michelle still wasn't sure what to do about that particular detail. Or even about Geonosis. If she could arrange for less casualties, that would be best. Maybe she could go AWOL after Obi-Wan left for Kamino, stop him from ever being captured? War was inevitable, but if it could happen without a slaughter of Jedi, that would be much better. And honestly, she'd prefer Jango Fett lived, if only to prevent Boba's roaring rampage of revenge.

Well. She'd burn that bridge when she came to it.

For right now, she had an ominous text from Coltin to handle.

Really. She loved the man like a father, but sending a message saying 'hey come home after lunch today we need to talk' was _incredibly_ ominous, and she didn't really appreciate it. It could be anything from him telling her to clean her fucking room, to him informing her that he was secretly dying. There was just too much variety for what it could be.

Which, really, was just how parents were. Over the last four years, Coltin had proved himself an excellent replacement for her own parents, long since left behind on Earth, her memories of their faces and voices faded away with time. She knew she'd had an older brother, but his name was beyond her.

In a way, it was letting go. She still missed her family and her life, but it was more of a dull ache that came up now and then, instead of the early feelings of loss that were almost painful in their intensity. The pain of losing everything had never really gone away, and Michelle was fairly certain it never would, but it had faded with time. Maybe one day all she would feel for her family would be a sort of melancholic nostalgia. She wasn't sure if she was looking forwards to that or not.

Sure, she had looked into her family in the universe, and been… well, disappointed. Obviously, she was expecting the dynamics of her family to be different, on account of the fact that one of her parents would be not human, to account for Michelle not being all human. What she had not expected was to _not actually have a family_. Really, she wasn't sure what the hell went wrong, but it was incredibly weird to suddenly be the only child of a single mother. Who owned a shady lower levels bar. Michelle's mother had been a music teacher that kickboxed for a hobby.

…Well, maybe it did make sense that her mother would own a bar. But Ketros's mother wasn't _Michelle's_ mother, so that little bit of hope had died fairly quickly.

Either way, she was too busy to grieve often. And when it became unavoidable, Coltin was respectful of her occasional bleak moods, and had listened to her refusal to see a mind healer for her depression. And clearly, on some level she was depressed, but seeing a therapist wouldn't do her much good, considering she couldn't explain what exactly she had lost.

What she had gained in the form of friends wasn't a replacement by any length, but it did do wonders for her mood. So that was something. Always nice to not be trying to push through crippling depression and fight Sith Lords completely by yourself. Working through some manageable depression with the assistance of friends made it much easier to get to said Sith Lord fighting.

...Not that Michelle had _actually_ fought a Sith Lord (outside of thinly veiled bitching at Palpatine), but it was the thought that counted.

"Hey, Coltin, I'm home! What the hell do we need to talk about, that was incredibly ominous and I've been stressing like, all day. My life flashed before my eyes at least twice. It was very short, and kind of sad." Michelle deadpanned, letting herself into the apartment and kicking her shoes off, flopping down on the couch across from Coltin with a glare.

"What? Oh, hell, that would be a little ominous, wouldn't it? Sorry. I was going for a tone of 'don't blow this off but don't worry' but I ended up with 'you're going to die', didn't I?"

"A little bit. If I'd come in to find anything sketchy, I probably would have bolted."

"Honestly, when I was your age, I would have as well. Anyways, this is actually fairly important, so I think you want to sit up for it." Coltin said, straightening his posture slightly. Michelle raised an eyebrow, but got the message that he wouldn't continue until she did so, and brought her lazy slump into a position that many would describe as 'sitting'. Behold, the might of the Jedi.

"So. I've been reviewing your work lately, and your mission performance. I've also been talking with the council, looking over your training records, and what not like that." Coltin began, before being cut off by Michelle.

"Am I in trouble? Should I up my schedule? I can probably do more than I am right now, I'm sure I can pull it off-"

"No, no, you're fine kiddo. You've shown an almost fanatic dedication to your work, more than anyone expects from a padawan. In fact, you're getting to the point where we're wondering if you really should be a padawan."

"...What are you saying?" Michelle asked slowly, a growing feeling of dread in her.

"I proposed the idea, and the Council agreed with me. You're taking your trials in two days." Coltin said, pride in his voice. Unfortunately, Michelle could not process his exact tone. Michelle was having a moment that most earthlings could immediately recognize and name.

Michelle was experiencing the mental equivalent of the blue screen of death.

"…Michelle? You okay? You're kinda pale there."

"Nah, I'm fine, just re-thinking literally everything. Whose idea was that? I'm can't be a knight, I'm not even an adult!" She yelped, pitched raised slightly in hysteria.

"Michelle you're turning twenty one soon."

"And I don't think I'm even cut out for that! Do you know how bad at adulting someone has to be to not be qualified to exist in the normal progression of time!? I can't even do my taxes! Why are you laughing at my suffering!?"

"Sorry, sorry. It- It's not you, It's just- I said the exact same thing when I was recommended for the trials. Don't worry. We're Jedi. We don't have to do taxes." Coltin said, obviously finding the entire situation hilarious, the complete _monster_.

"Oh Force, now I'm turning into _you_!?" Michelle wailed, being admittedly a little melodramatic.

"…Well you don't have to say it like that. Cuts me deep kiddo. Kinda hurts." Coltin deadpanned, somehow making the action of putting a hand over his heart feel bland. Really, the things you could do with body language.

"Well, it should, it was hurtful. I don't want to be you, I'd look terrible with that haircut. And that's not the point! We're getting off topic! I'm not ready to be a knight. And I'm not ready to take the trials. That is the point I'm making."

"Michelle. Trust me when I say, almost every padawan has said the exact same thing as you. Well, probably not the taxes part or the vicious uncalled for insults, but the rest of it. And you know what the response is? Make 'em do it anyways. I know you kiddo. You can do this. I believe in you."

"I… am going to go meditate on this. I'm going out for dinner with the others by the way, don't wait up for me."

And with that Michelle made an epic and daring escape with the greatest nobility – Oh, who was she kidding, she bolted like a bat out of hell.

* * *

"So, that was a thing. And it certainly happened." Ketros said, sitting in their shared mindscape.

"Yeah, thanks. Goddamn genius doctor Superman over here." Michele snapped, glaring at her. Ketros pulled a face.

"Don't need to be rude about it. Anyways, Coltin had that look on his face, y'know, the one where he's convinced he's doing what's best for us? You're going to have to take the trials in two days. So… don't fuck it up." Ketros said bluntly, although there was a joking tone to her voice.

"Well I mean… technically speaking, you're taking the trials too." Michelle said, shrugging slightly.

"No I'm not. Fifteen year olds can't be knights."

An awkward silence fell, Ketros irritated, and Michelle finding herself suddenly unable to think of the right thing to say.

Because really, lately that had been the elephant in the mindscape between them, becoming slowly apparent as the years went by. Michelle was aging, growing and slowly yet steadily maturing into the adult she was. And Ketros… wasn't. She hadn't aged a day since their death, hadn't changed in the slightest. And with every day that passed, the gap widened. Michelle was growing up, and Ketros was left behind.

It made sense, of course. Ketros was dead after all, and just a ghost that managed to anchor onto Michelle. It would be strange if she did age. But still, with her being linked to her body, and it being alive with Michelle in it…

Well, they had hoped.

When they were teenagers, their dynamic had been clear. They made decisions together, and Michelle followed through, with Ketros providing information about the galaxy, and filling in the information gaps Michelle obviously had. But as time went on, Michelle became more comfortable in her new world, and needed Ketros less and less.

One day, she probably wouldn't need Ketros at all. But she would still be there. For her entire life.

Michelle didn't know what they would do then. It was something she tried not to think about, on most days. But sometimes it just stared her in the face, and wouldn't go away.

"Hey. Quit looking moody, you're bumming me out. Look, it's coming up on dinner time. Have you told the others about this? You should. You did tell Seha you'd meet them for dinner. Go hang with our friends." Ketros said, interrupting Michelle's brooding.

"Right, right, I'm going. And, for what it's worth… I think you'd make an excellent knight, just as you are."

"Go eat, you're having hunger delusions."

And with that, Michelle was unceremoniously ejected from their mindscape. Gotta love sharing head space with a moody teenager.

…Fuck, she was hungry.

Time to meet the others for dinner.

* * *

As Michelle was heading towards the hangar they were meeting in, she passed somebody in the hall. Someone familiar. Someone wearing an awful lot of red.

"Zinnia! You're back!" Michelle cried, turning to face her friend, who was visibly startled.

"Wha- oh. Hey Michelle. Yeah, got back about five minutes ago, fuck me I'm tired." Zinnia said, stifling a yawn. The woman had clearly just been through a rough mission, and it was showing, from her clothes looking shabby, to her long hair being clearly matted in the back, and a dark, nasty looking bruise coming in on her cheek.

"Well, if you're not too wiped, Anakin got back from his mission earlier today, we're all going out to dinner. I was just going to meet the others, you wanna join us? It's nothing fancy, just burgers in some hole in the wall place Isaac won't shut up about."

Zinnia paused, thinking it over for a long moment.

"Yeah, fuck it, I'm in. I've hit the point of tired where I'm too exhausted to have feelings, but also too tired to actually go to bed. Food would help. You may have to carry me home if I pass out on my plate."

"Yeah, I can do that. C'mon, let's go surprise the others. So what happened to your cheek?"

"Huh? Oh shit, is that coming in? Great. Eh, nothing serious, just got into a fist fight in the parking lot of a resturaunt at 2 AM. Not sure if it was my finest moment, or a sign that my life is getting really sad. Possibly both. Either way, I feel like it was a profound experience. And kind of fun. In a 'I'm a human dumpster fire' kind of way. Specifically a dumpster fire, because I consider myself quite firey, and the fist fight ended with me being thrown in a dumpster. It was great." Zinnia said cheerfully, ambling along beside Michelle, who was giving her a mildly concerned look.

"Sounds fun. When was the last time you slept?"

"That's an excellent question, and we're gonna get around to answering it someday."

"Over forty eight hours, got you. I'll carry you home when you inevitably pass out from exhaustion."

"You're so sweet."

"And we're here. Hey guys, I found a thing!" Michelle called, pitching her voice so that the small group of their friends could hear.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in through a garbage dump. How long have you been back Zinnia?" Isaac called cheerfully. Puberty had gifted him with the dubious honour of being the only truly short person in the group, and if he wasn't so good natured, he probably would have gotten fairly sour over it. As it was, he took the short jokes with good humour, and usually returned the friendly ribbing. Well, that or he was secretly planning to snap and kill them all. You never really know.

"Michelle caught me right as I was staggering in, landed like, ten minutes ago. I've been kidnapped with the promise of burgers, and you all had better deliver."

"Yeah, he dragged me down to the place for burgers one time, and I swear I had a religious experience, they were just that good. I will fight all of you for the leftovers; this is not a joke." Anakin deadpanned, flopped across the hood of a speeder. From his pose, he was clearly trying to look cool, but unfortunately, was elbow deep inside his awkward lanky colt phase, and wasn't completely certain of how far his limbs went. Michelle could relate. Really, putting on five inches in a year was terrible, and she tended to go through intense growth spurts when she was a kid. Anakin was the same, except his struck in the late teens. Poor bastard. And luck bastard, due to him being the tallest in the group already. At least Michelle was the strongest, although how long that would last was unknown.

"Alright, Anakin, shut up, I've got news." Michelle said firmly, ignoring the teenager in question flipping her off in response.

"Oh, is this why Coltin wanted to have his ominous talk with you?"

"Seha, shut up."

"You're being awfully rude today." Neria mused, picking at some engine muck under her fingernails.

" _Everyone_ shut up. Get in the speeder, we'll do this on the way." Michelle snapped, although without any real heat to the words. Obligingly, the group began to pile in the speeder, albeit with some scattered choice words about Michelle's attitude and personality. She loved her friends. So. So. Much.

It was a bit of a squeeze getting all six of them in the speeder. In hindsight, they probably should have borrowed a slightly larger speeder, but nobody had ever accused the group of teenagers and young adults of thinking things through.

' _I know you don't think things through, you walked into a Sith Lords office and threatened him.'_ Ketros deadpanned, with all the teenage bitchyness she could muster. It was quite a bit.

' _Oh my god, that was four years ago just drop it.'_ Michelle snapped, although her outward response was only to pull an annoyed face. This was justified, considering that she was trying to shove into the back seat with three other people.

"Hey, how come Neria and Zinnia get to be in the front? That's just not fair." Anakin complained, doing his best to get the door closed.

"Because I'm driving, and Zinnia's still filthy from her mission. Figured nobody wanted to be pressed up against that and get their clothes dirty. Er, no offense."

"None taken, I got thrown in so many dumpsters. Undercover work sucks. Especially when you're supposed to be non-Force sensitive, but still start a bunch of fights. Am I right, squad?" Zinnia said, her attempt at sounding energetic falling flat. Her explanation to her current state still earned a round of winces, and sympathetic noises.

"Alright, doors closed, that was terrible. I for one don't want to go through the hell of digging out the seatbelts, anyone else just want to go as is?" Anakin asked, looking at the cramped backseat, and receiving three nods in response.

"It's a yes. If we crash and you die, it's not my fault." Neria said cheerfully, before neatly taking off and flying out of the hangar.

"May the Force be with us." Isaac deadpanned, earning a round of snickers.

* * *

Upon arriving at the restaurant Isaac and Anakin had insisted on, they piled out of their cramped speeder, and piled into a slightly less cramped booth. Really, having a friend group of six people was inconvenient sometimes.

…Not that Michelle would give up any of them. For some weird reason, being friends with people for about five years tended to make her just a little bit fond of them. Funny how that worked.

And it even worked from a practical standpoint. One of her early goals _had_ been to make sure Anakin made friends, and developed a support group. Looking at Anakin laughing as Zinnia attempted to get dirt on his tunic, Michelle was fairly certain that she had succeeded in that goal.

Now, if she could only figure out what to do about Palpatine. Besides the Goes To Shit Switch, which was supposed to be a temporary measure. In this case, temporary apparently meant four years. Hey, what worked, worked.

Man, she had been thinking about her first few months as a Jedi a lot today. Weird.

"Hey, Michelle? You said you had news, and then you forgot to share it." Isaac pointed out, sliding a menu down to the person in question.

"What? Oh, right. That. Um. So, Coltin talked to me today about something. Because he's a terrible judge of character who somehow doesn't know me in the slightest… my trials are in two days, and I'm dying inside."

There was a long, stunned pause. Zinnia dropped her menu, it landing with an unsatisfying flop. Regardless, it was enough to break the silence.

"Holy shit, you're getting knighted!" Isaac cried out, an expression of shocked happiness on his face.

"Damn, you beat me to it." Neria said, laughter in her voice as she lightly elbowed Michelle.

"Good luck with the trials. You'll need it." Zinnia said, giving Michelle a serious look.

"I'd advice a lot of meditation before. Trust me, you want to be at peace with any baggage you have when you go in, because the chamber will drag all of your issues to the surface. Issues you didn't know you had. It's an experience." Seha said, pulling a face at the thought of the trials.

"…Thank you girls, that really helped, I feel so much better about my trials, I can't wait to take them. On a completely unrelated note, do you think Coltin would be upset if I fled the planet, right now immediately?"

"I think Coltin would dedicate his entire existence to tracking you down and finding out what the hell went wrong. Yeah. He'd be a little upset."

"Damn him." Michelle muttered, although without any real fire to it.

So, she was taking the trials in two days.

…Fuck.

* * *

 **AN: Whew. That was a long chapter. And uh… this is gonna be the new average chapter length. Look, while I'm not changing anything right now, I may have to shift my update schedule a little? Maybe. I've also just started up a new fanfic, and it's only going to be seven chapters, but I think they might be long ones. So I might need to cut down the schedule to just once a week, or go from set dates to like, every five days or something. It's not relevant right now, just giving a pre warning as a just in case.**

 **So… yeah! Again, the new character designs are on my blog, and the info's up top. Next chapter we get to start Michelle's trials! And she's just so very very thrilled about that. I am more genuinely thrilled, but that's because I really love analysing characters, and Jedi trials are basically just in depth analysis of someone's fears and personality, and I'm always here for that. And I assume that the more baggage you have, the harder your trials are for you. Michelle has so much baggage. And a lot of things to be afraid of. Really, it's a miracle she doesn't have a crippling anxiety disorder yet.**

 **Anyways. So the question about the characters that I'm sure quite a few of you are wondering: Are they attractive?**

 **Well, Isaac and Anakin are 17 year old boys. So, the answer to that one is an emphatic no, because I have literally never met a teenage boy whose appearance could hit anything higher than 'okay'. Sorry boys. We all know Anakin will be a looker when he grows into it, and an adult Isaac... I wouldn't say handsome exactly, but definitely cute. It's just how he's built.**

 **Zinnia and Neria, obviously, are physically identical. Literally, the only difference between them is Zinnia's hair being dark brown to Neria's black. Despite this, they have very different looks. Zinnia is the sort of person who knows she's gorgeous, and is actively working towards that aesthetic anyways. She's unobjectively beautiful, and the way she dresses and wears her hair is all to accentuate. The fact that she's really good at makeup doesn't hurt either. On the other hand, while having an obvious example of what she could look like right beside her, Neria's only real opinion is that she has a practical and vaguely flattering haircut, and is wearing clothing that's good for mechanical work. Everything else is secondary. Sure, she can clean up damn nice if she wants to, but... why would she want to. Neria's pretty, yeah, but beautiful isn't exactly the right word to describe her. And honestly, that's the way she prefers it.**

 **Seha is unlucky enough to have not figured out what looks flattering on her yet. She knows that she wants a pale colour scheme, but beyond that... yeah, she's not doing the best. Once she works it out, she's going to be _stunning_. Natural grace combined with lightsaber training? She's going to be incredibly elegant, and it will be amazing to see. But for right now, between her clothing and hairstyle, she can maybe pass for cute, but is mostly kind of plain. It's not really a high priority of hers, she's got lightsaber's to swing.**

 **And as for Michelle. Eventually, she's going to be beautiful. But right now, she's still in that awkward phase of shifting between teenager and adult, so she's shaking off the last of her baby face, and finishing up the whole growing up thing. Come Clone Wars, she'll be an absolute babe. It helps that she figured out what her style was when she was around fourteen, and knows that her own best traits are nice hair and nice skin. So, she's grown her hair out for the aesthetic, and has an intense moisturising routine. Ironically, come Clone Wars, her looks will start to slide, on account of her no longer having time or energy to keep up her usual hair and skin care routines. She'll still be beautiful, but just... a bit more untamed.**

 **Note: For the characters who are absolute babes, they actively work to achieve that state. None of them have any problem with dropping all of it and destroying shit. Beauty is not a measure of skill in other areas. And, at the end of the day, everybody has something attractive about them. And if someone doesn't want to be with you on account of you not meeting their standards of beauty, you don't want to be with them, because they've summed you up to your appearance, and that sort of person is a human trash fire. Don't be around those people, you're way too good for them.**


	27. Part 3, Chapter 2: No Turning Back

**AN: Hello! Sorry this chapter's going up a little late, I've been busy this week with my last exam. But it's done now, so updates should be much better after now!**

 **Y'know something that I love? The Star Wars canon never really bothers to sit down and do any real development about the Jedi. It's just like 'the Jedi are here, they follow the Force, and they don't like intense emotions now let's get going'. This is nice, because it gives us fanfic writers a lot of wiggle room when writing stories that** _ **do**_ **feature normal Jedi life. So! My take on the trials is not strictly canon, but is based off of some googling at 2 AM a few months ago. It's gonna be a mindfuck. My outline literally describes it as a mindfuck.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Part 3, Chapter 2: No Turning Back

' _I'm just saying, we could bolt right now. I think we could make it down the hall before Master started moving, we're fast and tricky, we could be off world before they knew we left the planet.'_ Ketros said firmly, inner voice tight with anxiety.

' _Shush. I'm trying to not have a meltdown here, and you're not helping.'_ Michelle replied, although her tone was one of gentle chiding.

' _Okay, but like, are we sure this is a good idea? The trial chamber is supposed to get inside your head. We really don't like things inside our head.'_ Ketros pressed on, despite the fact that Michelle was very clearly not bolting.

' _Leave me alone, I'm dissociating here.'_

"…And the most important thing to remember is to stay calm, alright? Remember your training Padawan. I know you can do this." Coltin said, clearly only just restraining himself from going from concerned master to full out mother hen.

Yeah, Michelle was surrounded by anxiety, and it was starting to get to her. Time to go for it.

"I'll be fine Coltin. Can I go in now?"

"I… Yes. Yes you can. Go ahead padawan. I'll be right here." Coltin said, voice slightly choked up. Despite his words, he pulled Michelle into a tight hug, and then let her go into the chamber.

Michelle pushed open the doors, and entered the trial chamber.

It was dark inside, without much lighting. The air was colder too, prompting her to shiver slightly, glad she had at least chosen to wear long sleeves that day.

' _Oh man. This is it. Am I allowed to be here? I feel like I'm not supposed to be here. Really, I haven't done the training, or anything like – LOOK OUT!'_

Michelle flung herself out of the way, Ketros's warning and the Force guiding her into a tight roll to the right. Coming out of it, she easily used the momentum to get to her feet again, lightsaber hilt already in hand. Looking to where she had been standing, she came face to face with-

"WHAT IN THE FUCK _IS_ THAT THING!?" She shrieked, activating her lightsaber and taking a defensive stance. The thing turned around, and let out a hissing sound, before pouncing at her again, blindingly fast, which Michelle was able to narrowly avoid, stepping aside and aiming to slice it in half. This proved to be counterproductive, as her lightsaber bounced right off the hard plating on its back.

"What the _fuck_!?" She demanded, choosing to cut her losses and back off as it pounced again.

' _Wait! I know that, I've seen it before, on a mission once! It's a Reib, vicious little fucker.'_

"I'm debating the little part there!"

' _You get my point. They're completely blind though, no eyes at all. Hunts by sound, you need to turn your lightsaber off and stay silent.'_ Ketros instructed, voice tight with fear.

' _Oh my god, you're not serious?'_

' _Of course I am! There's a spot you can hit with a lightsaber, but you need to be neat about it, now turn off your saber!'_

Wincing, Michelle deactivated her saber.

The Reib's head snapped around at the sound, and it lunged for Michelle again. This time, heeding Ketros's warning, she leapt over the path of it's lunge, using the Force to land light and silent on the floor.

Staying silent, she watched as it searched around for her, it's four legs skittering around on the floor, sharp talons making soft scratching noises.

' _Alright, easy now. You'll need to get under it's belly, and stab in there. I know, sounds impossible, but you have to. Trust me.'_ Ketros said, Michelle responding with a silent agreement in their mind.

She waited until the thing's searching took it to facing her. Like Ketros said, the spot were eyes would be was covered by the same armour on the rest of it, clearly protecting the brain. And no eyes. Weird.

Sure as shit was a mouth though.

Once she'd judged it's angle as good enough, she very purposefully stomped a foot.

It was moving in an instant, but so was Michelle, flinging herself to the ground ahead of where she had been, sliding slightly onto her back, and tapping into the Force to quicken her reflexes.

It passed above her, claws disturbingly close to her face, but she was ready, activating her lightsaber to plunge it into the things stomach.

It let out a long, furious howl of pain at the injury, thrashing slightly, before going still.

Gasping, she threw the thing off of her, carefully kicking it a few times to make sure it was dead. It was. Thank fuck.

"Well, that was horrifying, and I never want to see one of those things ever again." Michelle said, injecting false cheer into her tone. Ketros laughed, although with a slightly hysterical edge to it.

' _Fine by me, I hate those things. Almost died to one, my solution was to run like hell and pray to the Force it didn't get me. Anyways, so… was that it? Are we-'_

Ketros's voice cut out suddenly, and her presence vanished from their mind. Some poking with the Force revealed… nothing. Ketros was just gone.

"What the actual fuck." Michelle muttered to herself, looking around the dark room, as if that would help somehow. Because, seriously, what the fuck? What the _fuck_?

It was impossible for Ketros to not be a presence in Michelle's head. Literally, she was always there. Sure, she could move to the metaphorical back corners, and make it easy for them to ignore each other, but it's not like she actually left. Since they had gotten into regular contact, Michelle had _never_ been alone.

She was finding that it was not a feeling she cared for anymore.

"Okay, calm down, deep breath. This isn't a problem, you've gotten by like this before. Get your shit together Michelle, you can get through this alone." She muttered, trying for some sort of breathing exercise to shove the panic down.

It took a minute or so, but she managed to pull herself out of the anxiety, calming down her heart rate, and getting back to normal breathing.

"Okay. Okay. I'm okay, it's okay." She said quietly, straightening up her posture. It was fine. She was fine.

"Is it now?"

"Fucking shit!" Michelle yelped, whirling around and activating her lightsaber, as the fading anxiety was replaced with some hardcore fear. This was completely justified, due to the new presence being _fucking Palpatine_.

"What the hell are you doing here?" She demanded, trying to take the tone of someone who was not scared out of her fucking mind. How successful she was at this was fairly debatable, but it was probably safe to say that he was on to her.

"I'm here to dispose of a problem. Specifically, you."

"Haha, no you're not, that deadmans switch is still very much a thing, and I know for a fact you are not ready to deal with those consequences, so kindly back the fuck off, alright?" Michelle said, forcing a flippant tone, instead of the hysterical shrieking she was tempted to go for.

"Subtlety is not your strong point Padawan Ketros. I'm afraid your little trick has already been found and deactivated. Now, all that's left is to you, and of those women that built it." Palpatine snarled, his tone making it clear that he was enjoying the situation.

"…Ah. Well. Or you could… not? Do that? Because… of… reasons. Which I have. Many reasons. So many of them, just the greatest reasons to not murder me and the twins, and you should absolutely listen to these reasons which I definitely have and oh my god I can't stop talking this is the _worst day_."

He responded, not with words, but with Force lightning.

She moved almost automatically, raising her saber to block it before it could strike, gritting her teeth as the power numbed her arms, and caused them to shake. Despite this, she continued to hold up her saber, until the assault stopped. The Jedi and Sith glared at each other, Michelle panting slightly, both trying to decide what to do.

What to do…

"Wait a damn minute." Michelle blurted out suddenly, eyes going wide. "This is some fucking bullshit. You're trying to kill me, while maintaining your cover. Why, for the love of the Force, are you trying to assassinate a Jedi _in the middle of the Jedi Temple_!? You're… not an idiot, you're terrifyingly smart. There's no possible way you could get away with this. And I'm inside the trial chambers. Meaning… this isn't real. You're not real. The trials is making me face what I'm afraid of? And it's you. And I'm not afraid of you because YOU'RE NOT REAL!"

Instead of denying or confirming this, Probably Not Palpatine just tilted his head slightly, giving her a considering look.

"Hm. Perhaps you're more intelligent than I gave you credit for. Killing you might be a premature action. There might be a way to get some use out of you."

"What are you… Oh. OH. That is… FUCK NO!" Michelle yelled. Without pausing to think, she attacked the hallucination, lightsaber moving through blindingly fast complications, all of which were easily blocked by the non existant Sith.

"STAY STILL! SO I! CAN STAB YOU!" She yelled, punctuating each part with powerful strokes, which were inevitably brushed aside like they were nothing.

"Yes, yes! Use your anger!" Palpatine jeered. The familiar line was enough to make her jerk to a stop, leaping backwards to avoid further attacks.

"Wait. You… want me getting angry. And using the dark side. I… am not letting that happen." Michelle said firmly, gritting her teeth, and trying to force the anger she was feeling off to the side.

"And if you no longer have a choice about using the darkness?"

She took a deep breath, mulling the question over for a moment.

"Then my friends will pull me back out again. I can burn that bridge when I come to it. But for now, as said, you're not real, so I don't need to put up with anything from you. So, basically… fuck off."

And he did.

"God damn." Michelle muttered, letting out a long, relieved sigh as the hallucination faded. "That was the worst not real thing to ever happen to me."

"Not all of us have the benefit of our problems being non-real, you know."

The new voice speaking was familiar, and it took her a second to recognize it. When she did, Michelle's face lit up with relief, and she spun around to face the familiar teenager that was now in the room.

"Ketros! You're back! I was worried, what happened? Why can't I sense you? Can you believe I made a Sith go away by just telling him to fuck off?"

Ketros's expression didn't change at Michelle's greeting, instead remaining hard and unreadable.

"…Ketros?"

"I am so sick of that. 'Ketros'. My name is Michelle. Not… that! YOU should be Ketros, you're the one impersonating ME." Ketros snapped, face shifting into something more hostile. Michelle took and automatic step back, feeling worried.

"You're… uh, kinda freaking me out here. Need to talk about something?"

"No. There's nothing to talk about. I saw how you handled that illusion. That was my work. I figured, with the right pressure, I could get you right out of my body. Then I could take it back."

"Ke- Michelle, you're being ridiculous here, you know I couldn't leave the body, even if I wanted to." Michelle said, a nervous tone in her voice as she backed away.

"Well, I know that now. So if pressuring you out isn't going to work…"

There was an ominous pause, as Ketros vanished. Having seen enough horror movies to know where it was going, Michelle whirled around, unsurprised by the teenager now standing in a spot that would have been directly behind her. What _was_ surprising was the ghost grabbing her by the tunics, and flat out throwing her across the room, Michelle landing hard with a painful thud, making her cry out in pain.

"Then I'll just have to force you out."

* * *

 **AN: Sleep tight!**

 **So, to answer the burning question I'm sure you all have right now: Yes. Michelle did make Hallucination Palpatine go away by telling him to fuck off. This is actually meant to be a very loose shout out to this one anime I just finished called School Live, where the protagonist saves her friends from the invading zombie horde by getting on the intercom and telling the horde to fuck off. ...It's a lot deeper than that, the scene in question lasts a few minutes and made me cry. Watch the anime, it's really good. Made by the same people who did Madoka Magica, if that convinces anyone.**

… **Okay yeah but no, I know what you're thinking, yes Ketros has gone off the deep end. Or has she? It's all kind of a mindfuck right now. Trial chambers man. You never know what is a hallucination and what isn't.**

 **Also, for the record, the Palpatine illusion was implying that he might forcefully convert Michelle into an apprentice, or something similar. He seems like the type to break the rule of 2 if it suited him. So, if you thought he meant something else, you should... not think that. Maybe. The movies don't spend a lot of time developing Palpatine's characterisation, so I'm partially basing my take on him off of Flamethrower's Re-Entry series. It's over on Ao3, and the first part is around 500 thousand words, and complete, while the second one is over a million, and is nowhere near finished yet. It's an amazing story, seriously. Just don't sit down to read it if you're going to be busy anytime soon, that thing will suck you in. Clear your schedule. Just clear it. I blasted through it in a week, but I'm a lonely shut in anyways, so take that as you will.**

 **So, there is actually a method to this madness. Honestly, there's a strict series of individual trials that is canon according to Wookiepedia. The one I'm going off us has nine steps, google it if you want. Fair warning, seeing the order and type may spoil you for what's going on. So, if you can resist, good on you. All I'll say is that we cut off halfway through number five here, and go straight through till nine next time. Which should be fun.**

 **A Reib is a creature I made up myself, due to not being able to find a canon creature that was both threatening, and that Michelle wouldn't have reasonably seen before, but Ketros would have. Appearance wise, it's a quadruped, and on all four legs, is roughly four feet high. It's face is made up of just a mouth and some terrifyingly good ears. Like, can hear the hum of a lightsaber ears. It's some sort of reptile, and is almost completely covered in** _ **very**_ **strong armour, which can deflect a lightsaber stroke. It's not covered on the stomach, because the plates are incredibly rigid, meaning that most of the movement from eating, breathing and whatnot happens on the unarmored stomach. Technically speaking, stabbing it in the mouth is also an option, but on account of having some long, very sharp teeth, it's not recommended. Especially since it only opens it's mouth during a lunge, physics and momentum means the dead Reib will still probably take a hand off. On it's homeworld, the bravest warriors of the native culture wears it's plates as armours, as you need to be really fucking brave to kill one of these things. Especially considering that without a lightsaber, you're not guaranteed that the knife will go in. And yes, a young Ketros's encounter with it would have been fucking terrifying. You know the finale scene from Until Dawn where Sam, Mike and the survivors are frantically trying to get out of the house while not drawing the Wendigo's attention? It would have looked a little like that. Short bursts of movement followed by terrified hiding. It was a very long night for young Ketros. She learned the trick of how to kill them in order to comfort herself when she got away from it and back to civilization.**

 **Anyways. See you all Tuesday for the conclusion of Ketros's betrayal! And wow, I almost wrote Friday, I'm a goddamn genius. The point is, see you later.**

 **And don't be shy about reviews! I'm a human dumpster fire, I love receiving them! Nice reviews literally make my entire week, sometimes I come back to just re-read them all and spin in happy circles. I'm very lonely.**


	28. Part 3, Chapter 3: Even While You Sleep

**AN: BREAKING NEWS: AUTHOR CAN'T WRITE GOOD. DOESN'T KEEP UPDATE SCHEDULE. CONFIRMED TO BE HUMAN DUMPSTER FIRE.**

 **So yeah, nothing went up FOR LIKE TWO MONTHS. CAUSE I'M A PIECE OF SHIT. AND Y'ALL DIDN'T GO OFF AT ME BUT YOU REALLY SHOULD HAVE. I HAD IT COMING THIS TIME. SO MUCH.**

 **I'm very tired and probably shouldn't be writing yet here we are. I did a diploma exam today. I thought it was tomorrow but it was today and I'm still in some shock over that. This may be the least favourite chapter I've ever written, but it's done now so take it you goddamn animals.**

 **Enjoy…?**

* * *

Part 3, Chapter 3: Even While You Sleep

Michelle scrambled to her feet, using the wall to pull herself up, right as Ketros pulled a goddamn lightsaber out of fucking nowhere.

"Is that even a real lightsaber, where the fuck did you get that, you're a ghost. Also, is this hormones? Because I remember how awful puberty was and I'm really sorry you're stuck in it forever but like, please locate your chill- JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!" She shrieked, vaguely panicked rambling cut off by Ketros stabbing the goddamn lightsaber into the wall, proving that it was _very much real_. If Michelle hadn't dodged that, she would have actually died.

Okay. So Ketros wasn't fucking around here.

"Why don't you ever take things seriously!? This is my fucking death you're mocking! You never think about that, do you, that you had to goddamn kill me just to be here!"

"It's not like I meant to! If we could switch places, I would do it in a heartbeat, but we can't, and this won't solve anything! If you kill this body, then we're both dead, and what the hell will that solve? Think about this Michelle, I know you're smart enough to work it out on your own!" Michelle yelled at the younger Jedi, being very carefully to _not_ call her Ketros, considering the reaction that had earned her earlier.

Ketros scowled, and raised her lightsaber again.

"Well, if I can't be alive, then you shouldn't be either."

"…Okay you're getting a little too dark side there-"

Which was probably not the right thing to point out at that time, as it provoked Ketros into attacking again.

Michelle dodged the first two swings, before drawing her own lightsaber to block the next couple. It was… considerably less difficult than she had expected. Which made sense, considering Michelle was a goddamn twenty year old adult, and could probably take a fifteen year old. Regardless of how angry said fifteen year old was.

It was embarrassingly easy to disarm the teenager. Blind rage wasn't much of a match for focus and experience.

Ketros was knocked to the ground, held at lightsaber point. Despite her resounding defeat, she was still glaring defiantly at Michelle, clearly a long ways away from being pacified. This was something Michelle had honestly expected, and was willing to work with. Pissed off was always easier to deal with then the pissed off person in question could no longer trying to kill her.

"So? You gonna do it? Kill me again, I dare you. It's the only way y'know, I'm gonna keep trying to get my body back until the day you die too. It's the only way to stop me." Ketros snapped, determination in her words. Clearly, she meant every sentence.

So Michelle did the only thing she could do.

Deactivating her lightsaber, she sat down in front of Ketros.

"Look. I had no idea that you felt like this, and I'm sorry that I've done all of this to you. I don't know how to give you your body back yet, but I want to fix this. I want this… whatever the hell we are to work out. I've considered you a friend for the last five years, and I don't want that to end. Talk to me. How can I fix this?"

Ketros stared for a long moment, before sighing, the anger and determination leaving her frame.

"You can't. You just can't."

"Well, not with that attitude, maybe."

Ketros snorted, before quickly scowling again.

"You're not funny." She warned.

"Sure I'm not. I'm hilarious. You know you love me."

"Shut up." Ketros muttered, visibly fighting a smile.

"Come on." Michelle wheedled, poking her in the shoulder.

The teenager sighed, before reluctantly giving a small grin.

"I occasionally tolerate you. Don't get a big head."

Michelle flat out laughed, and got to her feet, sticking a hand out. Ketros took it, and pulled herself up, the little smile still on her face.

"So… we cool? Or, at least, we're willing to talk and develop our friendship back to the point of being cool again?"

Ketros sighed again, and ran a hand through her short hair before answering.

"Yeah, we're cool-"

The sentence was cut off by the sound of blaster fire, a series of shots coming from in front of Michelle.

And from behind Ketros.

The teenager made a small, surprised sound, and collapsed, multiple smoking holes in the back of her tunic.

Michelle barely even hesitated, leaping forwards to stand above the fallen girl, lightsaber drawn and prepared to defend against their unknown attackers, hidden in the shadows, blocking the two Jedi from the door.

"Show yourselves!" Michelle snapped, using the considerable amount of authority she was capable of putting into her voice.

The shooters stepped forwards, and Michelle blinked in surprise.

Her first thought was Stormtroopers, but the design of their white armour was wrong for that, and too personalized to be Imperial. All five of the men in front of her had dark green painted somewhere on their armour, the designs differing enough to tell them all somewhat apart. The one in the middle was clearly the commander, blaster holstered despite the other four having theirs raised, and helmet painted in swirling designs of dark green.

They were clone troopers.

The one in the middle raised his hands to his head, and removed his helmet, revealing-

No. Wait.

 _Her_ face made it clear that she was a woman, despite sharing the usual colouring and features that a clone would have, and her dark hair being kept in a short, military crew cut. Still, her signature in the Force was that of a woman, despite being a clone.

And the way she was looking at Michelle… it wasn't the cold look of a soldier assessing an enemy. She looked like she already knew Michelle. Had known her?

…Would know her? After all, Michelle had figured she'd be a knight by the time the Clone Wars rolled around.

"Sorry General. But good soldiers follow orders, and you're not worth breaking that for." She said, only the faintest trace of regret in her voice.

And the other four clones began to fire.

Luckily, Michelle's lightsaber was already drawn, and she was able to defend herself, blocking the shots, and deflecting them away. Unfortunately, while was more than capable of deflecting them, specifically aiming back at one shooter was a little more difficult, considering that there were three other bolts coming at her at the same time to deflect, and it was this whole fucking thing.

It was probably a bad sign that Michelle was responding to being shot at with the emotions of bored irritation, but it had been a really long fucking day, and she was fairly certain that while Ketros was still breathing on the ground behind her, it would only last for so long, and Michelle just wanted to get the injured teenager away from the murderous clones who maybe knew her, and get her alternate self some goddamn medical attention.

Fuck, her life was complicated.

Unfortunately, Michelle had picked a really unfortunate moment for introspection, because, y'know, she was being shot at.

A blaster shot grazed her upper left arm, and she cried out, flinching back, and automatically responding with the Force to give her some goddamn breathing room. This was in the form of tossing the five clones away from her.

Seeing her opportunity, she turned, scooped Ketros off of the ground, and booked it for the doors. Right before making it out, something seemed to slam into her back, carrying her the rest of the distance, out of the trial chamber, and into the light from outside.

* * *

 **AN: FUCK THIS CHAPTER FUCK MICHELLE'S TRIALS FUCK LITERALLY ALL OF THIS WHY DID I THINK WRITING SUCH A LONG STORY WAS A GOOD IDEA JESUS CHRIST AHHHHH.**

 **Anyways. So yeah this chapter fought me. It fought me a lot. And this is the end result because I am too tired to do anything else I wrote one of my diploma exams today that's how fucking done I am with everything, fuck you, fuck everything, you will take your update and you will like it.**

 **Next chapter is already in progress, and will be longer. Because it's not fighting me like an asshole.**

 **Fuck. That's all I have to say about this chapter. Just. Fuck.**

 **Reviews would be nice, and make it less likely that I'll vanish again. VALIDATE ME DAMMIT.**


	29. Part 3, Chapter 4: Will Find You

**AN: Heeyyyy look I kept the schedule! Not a total fuckup! Apart from that two months but let's not talk about that okay? Okay.**

 **So, this offers some explanation to the mindfuck that went down in the last two chapters. And yes, I promise that I'll be on a regular update schedule again. For however much me promising that counts really because I'm unreliable as all fuck sometimes.**

 **Also oh my god, I asked for reviews and YOU PROVIDED. That's my kind of welcome back!**

 **And fun fact, when it comes to OC characters, we've only got two important ones left that haven't been introduced, but the entirety of the main cast finishes showing up in this part. Well, Ahsoka doesn't turn up until part 4, but we all know who she is, so the 'get to know you' part of character introduction can get skipped with her. So, everyone who needs introducing turns up in this part, and the class already knows Ahsoka.**

 **Anyways, enjoy!**

* * *

Part 3, Chapter 4: Will Find You

Michelle stumbled out into the corridor, still protectively carrying…

Nothing?

Why were her arms empty? Where the hell had Ketros gone?

...And why did her back hurt?

"What… just happened?" She asked, straightening up with a wince, arms slowly returning to her sides.

"You passed your trials." Coltin said, beaming proudly.

"Oh. Is that what happened? Shit. I totally forgot that was what I was doing in there, that was a mindfuck. I mean, I've had some mindfucks, but that was a _mindfuck_. Am I a Knight now?"

"Congratulations Knight Ketros. Serve the Light with honor and respect. May the Force be with you." Mace Windu said, face as serious as ever, except for the very faint upturn of his mouth.

Michelle felt inordinately happy about that anyways. She was an _adult_. For real now, by Jedi standards.

She turned back to Coltin, mildly amused to see that his eyes were more than a little misty.

"Kneel for the cutting of the braid." He said, voice steady despite him being on the verge of tears.

She sank to one knee, holding back a hiss of pain from her sore back, and was surprised to hear a sharp inhale from Windu, and a quiet swear from Coltin.

Before she could ask what was wrong, Coltin activated his lightsaber, the familiar blade extending in front of her.

"Padawan Ketros, you have proven yourself to be a fully fledged Jedi. Be careful to guard against the Darkness, and to hold with the Light."

The sharp scent of burning hair filled her nose, as Coltin's lightsaber sliced through her braid, it dropping to the floor in front of her.

"Rise, Knight Ketros."

Coltin's lightsaber deactivated again, and she started to get back to her feet, sore back protesting the movement. To her surprise, Coltin was quick to help her up, concern radiating off of him.

"Now let's get you to the healers." He said, firmly guiding her down the hall.

"What? Why? I'm fine."

Coltin stopped dead, giving her an incredulous look.

"Michelle Ketros, if you think knighthood is going to stop me from worrying over you, you're very wrong. I am worried. I am very worried, and you are going to the Halls of Healing, do not try to bullshit me on this." He said sternly.

"...But I'm fine." Michelle protested, fairly certain that her argument was not going to hold up.

"You have three blaster holes in your back." Mace pointed out, before leaving down the hall.

"I have WHAT!?"

Silently, Coltin lightly brushed a finger over a part on her back, which made the dull ache turn into stabbing pain.

"OW! Fuck me, how long have those been there! I thought… I thought I was hallucinating everything in the chamber!?"

"Your mind makes it real. And in this case, your mind gave you three blaster bolts to the back and a graze on your arm, you absolute lunatic. I don't even want to know what you saw during your trials, because I'm guessing it was weird."

Michelle thought about the illusion of Palpatine, Ketros's betrayal, and the clones firing on her.

"...It was a little fucked up."

* * *

"So I hadn't figured your after party happening in the Halls of Healing. Honestly, who gets shot during their trials? Without noticing?" Neria complained, gesturing vaguely in confusion. "Should I be worried? I don't like getting shot, that's why I'm a mechanic. And engineer. There's not a lot of shots being fired, beyond verbal ones."

"I doubt you'll be shot at in your trials. I'm getting the distinct impression that I'm just fucked up." Michelle said, giving her friend a reassuring grin.

The effectiveness was slightly undercut by the fact that she had been firmly restricted to overnight bedrest, with the wounds on her back having gotten bacta slapped on them, and the one on her arm having been bandaged and left to its own devices. Fortunately, it seemed that mind induced blaster wounds were less serious than actual blaster wounds, and were considerably shallower. There would be scars, of course, but she'd be released to go back to her new single apartment in two days. Much shorter than the usual recovery time for blaster wounds.

"Yeah, fucked up is a phrase that can be used to describe you." Zinnia said, a teasing grin on her face from where she was sprawled out on one of the visitor's chairs, feet up on Michelle's bed. Michelle responded to the words by casually flipping her off, drawing laughter from her other visitors.

Sadly, Anakin and Seha were all away from the Temple again, sent out on missions. Anakin and Obi-Wan had already sent messages congratulating her, and Anakin had begged for blanket permission to crash on her couch when he didn't want to deal with Obi-Wan. It was a request Michelle would probably agree to, in the name of her ongoing mission to un-fuck the galaxy by giving Anakin Skywalker some emotional stability. It had been working out well, but the teenager was still a hothead. Shocking. Although he didn't seem prone to stab children, so that was always a plus.

Seha hadn't sent any messages yet, but that was something Michelle had expected. The woman had a tendency to take on combat heavy missions, and was probably in the middle of some epic battle.

Not for the first time, Michelle wondered if Seha was the main character of whatever story they were in. Fuck knows her life was exciting enough for it. Certainly more interesting than Michelle's self-appointed task of quietly manipulating everything she could. Her life was considerably more boring than her older friend.

...Well, ignoring her status as an interdimensional hobo anyways.

Speaking of.

"Hey, guys, could you clear out? I'm kinda tired, wanna catch some sleep. I mentally shot myself in the back like, three times today. Trust nobody, not even yourself I guess." Michelle said, concealing the fact that she was wondering how the fuck she remembered some stupid meme from Earth. Really, it was amazing that dumb jokes could stick around in her head with nobody around to share the context.

"Yeah, course. Come on Zinnia, let's go work on that super secret plan that we definitely didn't arrange." Neria said cheerfully, leaving the room, with Zinnia following close behind her, waving goodbye.

Isaac looked at where the twins had left, and gave Michelle another look, firmly not leaving. He had been quiet for most of the visit, and clearly had something on his mind.

"...What." Michelle asked suspiciously, getting the sense that he had something to talk to her about alone.

"You got badly injured during your trials. Most people just get some bumps and scrapes." Isaac said, sitting down at the foot of her bed, voice carefully neutral. Michelle narrowed her eyes.

"Where are we going with this?"

"I'm thinking about becoming a mind healer. Been doing a lot of reading. Generally speaking, any serious injuries during someone's trials is a good sign that the person has been highly stressed for a while. I know you, and you deflect your issues with humour, and the day you talk to a stranger about your issues is the day you fling yourself into your own pyre. So, let's talk. What's wrong."

Michelle froze, staring at him in blank shock.

Damn her to hell for having smart friends.

So how was she supposed to bullshit her way out of this one? Because she really wasn't in the mood for full confessions.

...Or was she?

"I'm an interdimensional hobo that got flung through the multiverse into the body of my dead alternate self, and gained knowledge of the entire future of this universe, as well as the exact date of every major catastrophe, and why it happened. I have been using this knowledge to get laid."

Isaac stared for a moment, torn between the urge to call bullshit and the urge to follow the thread of batshit insane. Morbid curiosity won out.

"...How the hell did you travel between universes?"

"Pole dancing accident. Very traumatic." Michelle replied, using all of her control to keep a perfect straight face.

The best part was, it was all true. Technically.

After all, she was willing to bet that their shared plot to destroy the Sith was at least part of what had led Zinnia to sleep with Michelle. And then there was that girl back on Alos that had helped Michelle in a gang fight, and then all but dragged Michelle into her bed.

Her sex life might have been mostly dry streaks, but when she got action, she got _action_.

And while her interdimensional body shuffle really had nothing to do with pole dancing, there had still been a pole involved in the proceedings on her end.

...It had been impaling her, but still.

Sometimes you just needed to mock your own traumas, and Michelle didn't like to take hers seriously unless she absolutely had to. And even then she liked to squeeze in a pun or two. Isaac really hadn't been wrong when he said that she used humor to deflect from her issues.

Speaking of Isaac, the teenager in question was giving her a very flat stare, clearly annoyed with her. And possibly fighting the urge to ask for more details.

"Is there any chance of me getting the truth out of you today?" He asked, eyebrows raising.

"Course there is, I just told you." She replied, purposefully flippant.

Isaac sighed, and got up.

"Bye Michelle. Just… if you need to talk, I'm always ready to listen." He said, before leaving the room.

Alone, Michelle let out a long, shaky breath.

Her life was a fucking dumpster fire.

She wasted about an hour or so watching crap TV, before a Healer came by, changing out her bandages, and giving her firm instructions not to sleep on her back before leaving, turning the lights out behind her at Michelle's request.

And then, guaranteed to be left alone for a good long while, Michelle meditated.

* * *

Ketros was waiting for her in their shared mindscape, and the way Michelle had planned to open the conversation was immediately thrown out the window at the sight of her.

Due to her status being dead and technically a ghost, Ketros had been identical during their entire acquaintance, looking the way she did when she died. Her hair stayed the same length, her clothes never changed, and her padawan braid was always hanging in place. This meant that anything being different was enough to instantly throw Michelle off, and was immediately noticeable.

Because Ketros's braid was missing, having been severed at the same length as Michelle's was.

"You- your braid." Was all Michelle said, well aware that her eyes were wide.

"Oh, yeah. It's gone now, I guess. So… what happened for you? After we got separated in the chamber. I went through a bit of a mindfuck. You?" Ketros asked, doing some slightly self-conscious fiddling with the end of the newly cut hair.

"We… we weren't separated, you said you cut me off on purpose." Michelle said, confusion in her voice. Ketros looked up in shock.

"What? I never even saw you in there, what are you talking about!? I was alone the whole time."

Michelle froze, and then slumped, letting out a slightly hysterical laugh and running a hand through her hair.

"So that wasn't real either. Fuck me gently with a chainsaw, I thought… God damn. So, you don't secretly hate me for taking over your life?"

Ketros gave her a worried look, clearly concerned over her counterpart's sanity.

"...No? I'd be dead if you hadn't done it, and now I'm at least still around. Not your fault we're in this mess." The teenager explained, shrugging a bit.

Not for the first or last time, Michelle was very thankful for having a level-headed counterpart. She probably would have been _fucked_ if Ketros was actually resentful.

And if Michelle was fucked, the entire universe was fucked. Palpatine and all.

...Well, that was an unnecessarily heavy thought.

Time for Michelle to go the fuck to sleep.

Her and Ketros talked a bit more, and exchanged farewells before Michelle exited the meditation, and promptly passed out, tired enough that she could even sleep on her stomach instead of her back or side as always.

Who knew becoming a Knight was so draining?

* * *

 **AN: Yeah Michelle, who knew. Getting shot three times in the back, you lunatic.**

 **So, Isaacs gotten some more development, in that he's planning on becoming a therapist! Will he actually follow through on this? Yes. Yes he will because this merry band of idiots needs someone to provide professional help and god damn it Isaacs gotta look after his friends somehow.**

 **It's not often that the literal youngest member of a group turns into the mom friend, but Isaacs pulled it off anyways. We're all very proud.**

 **Also, before I forget: The clone woman from the last chapter? In Michelle's vision? She will absolutely be relevant later on. It'll just… take a bit to get there. And yes, the whole 'clone trooper woman' thing will be explained, and if anyone argues my explanation for it when it arrives, they're formally invited to go fuck themselves, because I'm very proud of it.**

 **Actually, Displacement technically started with that clone woman, as I started writing a fanfic featuring her, and I needed a Jedi general, so I threw Michelle in, and then realised hey wait a minute I've got a better idea for a much larger story involving these two, and now here we are. Doing shit like this. Writing something that is literally over 90 000 words. Also, this is over 90 000 words and I'm only freaking out a little bit shut up.**

 **And yes, the story of Michelle getting laid on a mission to Alos will be gone over in this interlude, because it's a very fun story, and her temporary girlfriend, while technically a minor character in everything, is a very fun character, and also plays a minor role in Division.**

… **Remember that thing? Yes, that's still in the making. Or, that's already getting written, but can't be posted until Displacement's far enough along so that I can make sure it's not spoiling anything for Displacement. Certain events occur in mid part 4, and Division explains how they went down without the dimensional fuckery in its part 1. Which will be spoilery if that goes up before the events happen in Displacement.**

 **Have I explained this already? I feel like I've explained this already.**

 **Also, just for the record. Some of you may remember a little thing going last year called #LetColtinRest2016, and it's predecessor, #LetColtinRest2017. Well, it is my solemn duty to inform you that as of this chapter, Coltin is backing off in the story. For a while after here, he is going to be limited to just mentions. He's still very much a part of Michelle's life, but as she's no longer living with and learning from him, he's not so much a 'hi I see you every day' character as he is 'hi you're an important part of my life but I don't need direct interaction with you' character now. So, he's gonna be shifting to the background for a while, until he comes back into the foreground. And that's already planned out. And I don't remember if I brought it up in the notes, but at some point while discussing Displacement I've joked that due to #LetColtinRest, it can be assumed that if he isn't on screen, he's off relaxing on a beach somewhere and working off the stress of parenting Michelle.**

 **So, while we will all miss Coltin's presence in the main narrative, we can at least remember that he is definitely spending all of his time unwinding on a beach, and is probably better off for it. Or, y'know, he's doing normal Jedi stuff, but we can at least pretend he's chilling on a beach okay? He's just resting.**

 **See you next Tuesday!**


	30. Part 3, Chapter 5: Best Behaviour

**AN: WHAAT three times in a row? Man, it's almost like I… actually intend to stick to the update schedule again.**

 _ **Weird.**_

 **Okay but forreal this is very weird on my end, it's kinda unusual and my memory is bad enough I genuinely don't remember the far off time of two months ago when I actually did this shit on the regular. So that's fun.**

 **Anyways, yeah, new chapter. For the record, this is the last little bit of 'filler' before shit kicks off. For realsies. It's gonna go down, man. Every filler after this until the epilogue is just a quick pause between the action. We're doing this. We're making it happen.**

… **Oh, god, was that from my Homestuck phase? I think it was. Jesus that's an old reference. For a fandom I'm not in.**

 **Why are you like this GJP. Why.**

 **Minor identity crises aside, enjoy!**

* * *

Part 3, Chapter 5: Acting On Your Best Behaviour

"So. I have. An entire apartment. And it's mine." Michelle said out loud, looking around her new living room with mild shock.

She had forgotten that by Jedi standards, her becoming a knight meant that she was now considered a Real Adult. Capital letters necessary. Which meant that she was expected to live alone now, and had been assigned her own single apartment, to have until she got around to maybe taking a padawan, although she was expected to put some years as a knight under her belt first.

Unless her name happened to be Obi-Wan Kenobi and she just killed a Sith, but… neither of those things were true, so no padawan for Michelle.

Probably for the best, as she was absolutely not an adult and found it very odd that she had accidentally convinced people she was.

It was a bit weird having her own place to live, considering that she'd spent her whole life living with Coltin… or with her family back on Earth.

She tried not to think about them too much. It had been five years, they were probably moving along just fine without her, and thinking about it just made her melancholy. And then Coltin asked her why she was moody or weirdly clingy, and she wouldn't be able to explain… it was never a good time.

Anyways. Her own apartment.

It was probably small, although Michelle didn't really have a frame of reference over that. The living room had enough space for two small couches, a coffee table, and some bookshelves along the wall, although the room was a little cramped. There was a little kitchen off to the side, with a table clearly meant to fit her, and maybe a guest. Two, if they all squeezed. Her living room also happened to be covered with boxes, which a quick check had revealed to contain her stuff, and the basic essentials needed in an apartment. So, somebody had both moved all of her shit, and gotten what she needed. Not having to go shopping or haul boxes with a sore back was unexpectedly nice, and she suspected Coltin and her friends were behind it. Not that Michelle was complaining, of course.

The bathroom was equally simple, just a shower, sink, mirror and toilet. The shower was even just a stall, not an actual tub. Apparently knights were expected to be too old for baths. Lame. Also, for some reason the washing machine and dryer were shoved in a closet in there, which Michelle was fairly certain was a little weird, but whatever.

And, of course, her new bedroom.

At the moment, it was pretty barren. She had a queen sized bed, for the first time in her life outside of a hotel room, and was looking forwards to drowning in pillows on it. There was the standard desk, an empty bookshelf, and a closet standing empty, waiting for her to get around to putting her clothes in. The Goes To Shit Switch had been shoved in the corner of said closet, which she appreciated. Looking at it every day tended to unnerve her on principle, to the point where she'd just thrown a blanket over it in her old room. The walls were mint green for some reason, which was going to be the first thing to change. Probably in favour of a nice shade of blue, whenever she had the time and energy to actually paint an entire room.

…Was she allowed to paint her apartment?

' _I'm not saying it's not allowed, but if you did it you'd be working on a very strong technicality. Can't you like… put up with a minty bedroom? It's not the worst shade to ever exist.'_ Ketros pointed out, sounding mildly amused at Michelle's colour difficulties.

"Okay yes, but mint green. I'm sleeping in a goddamn stick of spearmint gum and I can't live like that man. Can't do it."

'… _I don't know, get a corkboard or something. Start a conspiracy theory wall to keep track of all the insane shit you're planning.'_

The tone which Ketros used to say that strongly implied that she was joking. Unfortunately, Michelle was taking it completely seriously because _that was an amazing idea_.

"I'm gonna do it."

' _No, NO, do not do it!'_

"What, like you're going to stop me? Dude. I should have a way of keeping track anyways just in case, and this would be perfect! I've always wanted a conspiracy theory board, with like the threads connecting the pins? Ooh, I can use black thread for Palpatine, red thread for Dooku, OH, maybe I can find pictures online-"

' _MICHELLE. If you set up a conspiracy theory board in your room, you will never be able to get laid in your own bed. Ever. In your life.'_

Michelle blinked in surprise, before scowling.

"Fine. No conspiracy corkboard. For the sake of my already questionable sex life."

Fortunately, before Ketros could respond with the inevitable friendly bitching and turn the conversation into overly drawn out banter, someone knocked on the door.

Mildly surprised, Michelle left her new bedroom, picked her way around the various boxes in the living room, and opened the door.

"Sup loser, we're here to invade your place." Zinnia said cheerfully, shoving her way in through the door past Michelle. Bemused, she stepped out of the way, allowing Isaac, Neria and Anakin to file on in behind her.

"Hey, when did you get back?" Michelle asked, giving Anakin a curious look.

"Like, yesterday. I would have dropped in to your hospital room, but I was very busy sleeping off yet another hell mission. Keeps goddamn happening. Anyways, I know I sent you a message, but congratulations in person! ...Now about the rest of that message."

"Yes. Yes Ani, you can sleep on my couch whenever you're having a domestic with Obi-Wan."

The usage of the nickname earned her a punch on the non-injured arm, but was totally worth it.

"Avoidance may not solve my problems, but it sure helps me get away from them!" Anakin said cheerfully.

"Yeah, you piece of shit. ...I'd do it too, honestly." Michelle admitted, shrugging a bit before closing her door and wandering over to join the others in her living room. "So what are you all breaking into my place for?"

"Housewarming party, dumbass. Also, we packed your stuff up and brought it all over here, figured you owed us all pizza for that." Zinnia said, shrugging slightly.

"Well, we helped, Anakin did fuckall, not sure why he's here." Isaac threw in, from where he had thrown his feet up on the coffee table. This would have earned him an asskicking, if not for the fact that Michelle would absolutely be doing the same thing in five minutes.

"I provided moral support. From a distance. You could imagine my face, and carry onwards, or whatever. It makes sense, give me pizza."

"You're all assholes and I'm not giving you anything. ...What do you want on your pizza."

"Pineapple!"

"Leave my home and never return."

* * *

Two hours and the better part of four pizza's later, the five had gotten thoroughly wrapped up in reminiscing. Michelle was fairly certain this was her fault, as her being promoted to knighthood was making everyone all weepy. Noticeable passing of time and all that. And, between Anakin having joined the friend group later, and Michelle supposedly missing most of her memories before that, they mostly stuck to talking about things that Michelle had been there for. Which was sweet of them.

Well, and she was fairly certain that Zinnia was casually steering the conversation away from tricky subjects. She was good at doing that.

"...Anyways, so then the fuckin' idiot tells me that he knew exactly what they were up to the whole time! And that while they were beating him up to interrogate me, he could have stopped the whole damn thing!" Michelle complained, earning a round of laughter, and a scowl from Anakin.

"Okay, look. So I was like, thirteen, and I had some questionable priorities and very low self-preservation. I'm better now." Anakin protested, earning another round of laughter, mostly in disbelief.

"Dude, I don't need the Force to know that that is a blatant lie." Zinnia pointed out, clearly finding it hilarious that he was even trying to convince them of that.

"Yeah, you're what, eighteen? Still-"

Isaacs sentence was cut off by Michelle choking on her drink, eventually managing to spit it back into her glass, setting it down with a wheeze.

"...Alright there buddy?"

"No. Fuck, when did Anakin turn eighteen? How the fuck did I miss that?" She demanded, trying (and probably failing) to sound like a surprised friend instead of a suddenly panicking dimensional traveler who knew the future.

"...Like, a month ago. You were on that mission, remember? The radio silence one in the outer rim?" Neria suggested, looking mildly concerned. Actually, Isaac and Anakin looked a bit concerned too. This was probably due to her being a little too surprised, but whatever. She could deflect.

What she couldn't deflect was the look on Zinnia's face, which was less concern, and more alarm. She was probably noticing that there was something wrong beyond Michelle missing a friend's birthday, and drawing the conclusion that it was related to the future.

Not a wrong conclusion.

...Hadn't Attack of the Clones happened when Anakin was eighteen?

No. Wait.

Nineteen.

Thank fuck.

She still had a year. So that was… good?

"Yeah, yeah, I remember now. Sorry I missed it. And forgot. Uh, look, I'm still on some meds for my back, so I should probably get some sleep…"

Luckily, her friends went along with it, quickly making their goodbyes. And with only two worried looks from Isaac. He had gotten disturbingly good at giving her _looks_ , trying to silently convince her to follow through on that whole therapy thing. Which she wasn't going to, but good on him for trying.

And then she was alone.

Sitting down, she let out a long sigh. Zinnia would need to be given the one year warning, and she should really start keeping an eye on politics. Even with fucking Palpatine running the show, it would be useful to at least keep an eye on what he was doing.

But… well, her back was hurting.

All that could wait for the morning.

* * *

 **AN: For the record, the filthy heathen who requested pineapple on the pizza was Isaac. His sins will have consequences. And yes, Michelle was distressed by Anakin turning eighteen because she's suddenly realised that EVENTS ARE MOVING FASTER THAN SHE WOULD LIKE. And it totally just hit her that she has like a year until AotC because Anakin is 19 during that. And also yknow holy shit.**

 **Speaking of, Michelle may have a year, but we sure as shit don't, because guess what kids, it's time for another TIME SKIP! This one for a year and a couple of months, exact number is irrelevant.**

 **Oh yeah. You know what this means.**

 **Next chapter is canon.**

 **I hope you all have re-watched Attack of the Clones and the Clone Wars cartoon as much as I have, because we're going to be in canon territory right through to the end of this bitch. Or, at least until Michelle drives it off the rails for good, but we've got a few parts left before we get that far.**

 **Also, we are rapidly ticking down to our first death. Whose it gonna be? Well, probably not Anakin, because we need him, and probably not Michelle because I have much more unpleasantness waiting for her. But beyond that, I make no promises. After all, an awful lot of background Jedi got killed on Geonosis. I did say that I'm acting under the assumption all my OC's were canon characters that just never got a speaking role, right? Well, the friend groups gonna get some re-structuring via death, and let's just say it's a good thing Isaac's decided to go into psychiatry. They're gonna need a therapist very soon.**

 **Anyways have fun dwelling on that for a while. Cheers kids!**


	31. Part 3, Chapter 6: Turn Your Back

**AN: Okay, so just to clarify again to everyone, this is about a year after the last chapter. Updates on where everyone is: Michelle's well into her knighthood, Neria was knighted soon after Michelle, and Anakin and Isaac are still padawans. Losers.**

 **Speaking of, a year makes a hell of a difference for a group of people who can control their own appearance now. Michelle, Seha and Neria have all had updates in their looks! Tumblr blog Gay-Blue-Space-Rock, #holy shit it's my writing. Same as always, you know the drill. For those of you too lazy to look, Michelle's got red hair now. Like, bright red. Hair dye is very much her friend. And Michelle and Neria both have box braids, because Zinnia learned how to do them on a really weird undercover mission, and took it out on the two people she was close to that could actually get box braids. Neria keeps them cause they're super easy for her to keep out of the way when working, Michelle keeps them because they look good on her and she uses them to stim. Good times.**

 **Anyways, so Michelle, Zinnia and Neria are all twenty one, Seha is twenty four, and Anakin and Isaac are nineteen. Isaac is the only real adult amongst them, and Seha pretends to be an adult while using Jedi serenity to cover up her natural instincts to fight literally everything. She's so much fun to write, but she's even more fun to have offscreen racking up the noodle incidents.**

 **But hey. CANON! I'll let you figure out when it gets into AotC, it's a great moment.**

 **Also the person last week who claimed to like pineapple on pizza is a heathen and can fight me. WE HAVE TO TAKE A STAND PEOPLE.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Part 3, Chapter 6: Turn Your Back

"Snipers on the left!" Seha called, diving behind a wall, shots burning into where she had been standing.

"On it!" Michelle replied, using the Force to throw a decent sized chunk of debris at the snipers on the rooftop. Being battle droids, they were thoroughly smashed.

Leaving the problem of the fuckton of droids in front of them, shooting at their meager cover.

Michelle really needed to stop taking missions with Seha. _Because they always turned out like this._

Look, Michelle loved the woman, really she did. Seha was a strong and noble knight, and one of her least complicated friends. But somehow she attracted just as much danger as goddamn Anakin and Obi-Wan. Her and Seha were sent together on what was supposed to be a simple diplomatic mission. Instead, the entire thing had exploded into the clusterfuck they were dealing with. Specifically, a street shootout.

Well, at least it was good practice for the Clone Wars.

Not for the first or last time, Michelle wondered if Seha was the real protagonist of Star Wars. It wouldn't surprise her in the slightest.

Another round of blaster fire, and the Force warned her to get the fuck out of dodge, causing her to abandon the crumbling wall that had been her shelter. Probably just in time, as the damn thing fell down behind her. The droids turned to shoot on her out in the open, but she was already running, deflecting the few bolts that would have hit her as she ducked behind the wall to join Seha.

"So, got any plans for getting out of this? Because I think we're beyond negotiating." Michelle said, in a casual tone that was only slightly forced.

"No, no, this is a fairly standard negotiations for me. Anakin calls it aggressive negotiations. It's-"

"Like negotiating, but you're using a lightsaber, I know. I don't think that's helping us much either. Any ideas?"

Seha made a humming sound, idly stepping out a deflecting bolts back at their attackers, almost all of the returned shots finding a target. Terrifying badass.

After a moment of examination and obliterating her foes, Seha returned to cover.

"Not at this exact moment, but they seem to have explosives."

Seha's information was immediately verified by the sound of an explosion, alarmingly close. Their cover wall shook ominously.

"Really. Couldn't have guessed. Take our chances out in the open, use the Force to catch the explosives and throw them back?" Michelle suggested, lightsaber already re-ignited.

"Seems like a good idea. Together… now!"

They both leapt out of cover, on opposite sides of the wall, lightsabers moving to deflect the hail of blaster bolts

Unfortunately, while they were able to throw the first three explosives back, making a fair dent in the droid forces, they quickly learned, and stopped throwing explosives. Michelle quickly made the decision to focus her attention of deflecting the bolts, and assuming that Seha would cover for her. One of these days, she would need to get better at aiming the deflected bolts, but that day was not today.

The stalemate lasted for a while, before the Force blared a sudden warning, strong enough for Michelle to be moving before she really knew what she was doing, throwing her hands up to shield her and Seha from-

The building beside her exploded. If Michelle hadn't been shielding, the two Jedi would have probably been killed with the debris, or burnt with the fire. But, as it was, Michelle held back the worst of it, teeth gritted with the strain.

And leaving herself defenseless.

Something she found out as a blaster bolt slammed into her chest, sending her staggering backwards in surprise, before falling to the ground.

It didn't really hurt, exactly. Her ears were ringing, and there was the smell of burnt cloth and flesh, and she was fairly certain that blood was welling up and soaking through her tunic. Seha was yelling something, but it seemed fairly unimportant.

Michelle was fairly certain that all of these things were problems, but she didn't have the energy to try and do something about it.

Before she passed out, Michelle decided that she really needed to start wearing some sort of armour.

And then she was gone.

* * *

Something was beeping.

Something had been beeping for a very long time, and in an obnoxiously stable pattern.

Something was beeping and Michelle was going to _kill it dead_.

"Fuck." She managed to rasp out, although her mouth felt like it had been stuffed with cotton.

"Welcome back, you reckless idiot." A familiar voice said, before a familiar teenager appeared in her field of vision.

"Anakin?" She rasped out, through her dry mouth. Why was her mouth so dry?

And why did everything feel… floaty.

Oh. She was on painkillers. The good shit.

Nice.

"Hey Michelle. How're you feeling?" Anakin said, already putting a straw to her lips. The water was quite possibly the best thing she had ever put in her mouth.

"Like shit."

"Convenient, you look like it too. I love how everyone talks like I'm the reckless idiot, when you drop your lightsaber in a firefight to block some debris, and get yourself shot in the chest for it. Seha's going to tear you a new one when she has the chance. Apparently she obliterated all the droids you two had been fighting, and physically carried you to the nearest med station. Remind me not to fuck with her."

"Should I be swooning?" Michelle asked, trying to crane her neck enough to see her bandages without lifting her head. No, they were under the hospital tunic. Damn. Damage inspection could be penciled in for whenever they changed her bandages then.

"Maybe a bit. Considering you're basically bedridden for a few weeks, I would not suggest swooning right now though. Ask your healer first, I don't know."

"Medically advised swooning."

Anakin snorted, before perking up, apparently remembering something.

"Oh! And speaking of swooning and romantic rescues, guess what!"

"What?"

"Obi-Wan and I have a new mission! We've been assigned to bodyguard Senator Amidala! _Padme_. Michelle, I haven't seen her since I was nine, and I'm still in love, seriously. I'm freaking out, but it's a happy sort of freaking out, but also a terrified freaking out because I just know I'm going to be terrible at this. …Everything okay?"

"Fine." Michelle forced out, making a valiant attempt at a not panicked facial expression. "Just can't believe I'm missing your inevitably awful attempts at flirting."

"I'll message you the play by play whenever I can. Even the embarrassing stuff. It's motivation to recover so you can properly laugh at my horrible failures."

Michelle snorted, and then winced as that pulled her chest enough for her to feel a faint twinge, even through the drugs she was on. The many, many drugs. Said drugs were probably also contributing to her mental state, because she was fairly certain she was supposed to be having a full blown panic attack, and instead was just agitated.

Letting her head turn slightly, she looked out the window of her hospital room at the Coruscaunt night outside.

…Wait.

Night?

Checking the clock, she saw that yes. It was very much night.

Which posed a serious question.

"Anakin, why are you sitting at my hospital bed at two in the morning?"

"I was going to crash on your couch, but your apartment was too quiet, so I came here instead." He admitted, at least having the decency to look embarrassed about it.

"And why were you crashing in my empty apartment?"

He sighed, and slumped in his chair.

"I've been having dreams. Nightmares. They feel like visions, almost. About my mother. I see her hurt. Dying. Obi-Wan keeps telling me to ignore it, that they'll pass in time but… I don't know. I just wish I could check on her, then I'd be able to put this all behind me, but… nope. Not allowed. Had the nightmare again tonight, and I didn't want to deal with what Obi-Wan keeps trying to tell me about them… so I left. Went to your apartment, but the quiet freaked me out, so… here. Wasn't expecting you to wake up. Well. Lucky I was here, I guess."

Michelle blinked, and tried to work out how best to deal with this development. The painkillers were not helping in this endeavour.

"Wanna talk about it, or want to pretend it never happened?"

"Second option please."

"Got you. There should be a remote around here somewhere, wanna watch shitty late night shows and be really bitchy about how bad they are?"

Anakin cracked a grin, and started going through the drawers of her bedside table.

"Michelle. I always want to be really bitchy. Let's do this."

Anakin ended up falling asleep on her, still sitting in his chair, but with his head and torso on her legs. His back would probably hurt like a son of a bitch in the morning, but when he started making quiet upset noises that threatened an approaching nightmare, she was able to jiggle her leg, and he quieted down again. Nightmare banished, and blaster wounds were not strained. She was the ultimate friend.

After that, Michelle lay awake in the dark, the holovision still quietly playing some crappy late night show, and her teenage friend sleeping on her leg, and she wondered how the hell she had watched Attack of the Clones over and over again and never realised that Anakin was still a kid. She wondered what she was going to do.

And Michelle wondered how she was going to save him. _If_ she could save him.

It worried her that she didn't know the answer to either of those questions.

* * *

She drifted off at some point during her worrying, and woke up to a frazzled looking Obi-Wan entering her hospital room, visibly sighing in relief at the sight of the sleeping padawan by her bed.

"He said he had a vision last night. About his mother." Michelle whispered. Judging by the look on Obi-Wans face, it was all the explanation he needed.

"Remind him to leave a note next time, or at least leave our bond more open. I've been searching for him all morning, I could hardly even tell he was still in the Temple." He instructed, apparently trying to cover his worry with mild irritation. "But thank you for looking after him."

"No problem. I worry about him too you know. Keep an eye on him on your mission, alright?"

"I always do. Not that that tends to _help_ much, but I do what I can. Anakin, wake up." Obi-Wan said, switching from a quiet murmur to a louder command.

"Ugh… what? Ob'wan?" Anakin mumbled, dragging himself upright with a wince, hair in an impressive bedhead for someone with a padawan cut.

"Good morning padawan. Did you sleep well?"

"N't really. Ugh, my back hurts like a son of a bitch. What time is it?"

"Nine thirty in the morning. Time to get up, we have a mission today."

"…Mission. Oh! Yeah! Padme! I'm awake!"

Anakin left immediately after that, practically bouncing out the door to get back to their apartment to get ready. Obi-Wan lingered a few minutes longer, mainly for the purpose of the mandatory check on how she was feeling, and if her wound would be alright, before wishing her a fast recovery and leaving, with the promise to visit as soon as he could.

Really, Michelle had not gone into the situation with the intention of befriending Obi-Wan as well as Anakin. But it was where she had ended up, and really. There were worse people to have on her side.

Besides, he'd always been her favourite.

* * *

 **AN: So, Michelle's a bit too doped up on painkillers to really process just how much of an 'oh shit' this should be for her, but yeah. Attack of the Clones is going down** _ **right now**_ **and Michelle is bedridden with a serious injury that will take time to heal, even with bacta treatment. Really, she was lucky to survive.**

 **Which, of course, means that the battle of Geonosis is going to be a little bit beyond her reach. Because when that rolls around in however long it was (I assume a few weeks for Anakin and Padme to fall in love and for Obi-Wan to do all his researching and traveling). So by the time Geonosis begins, Michelle's juuust reaching the point where she gets to go home, with strict orders to take it easy for a while. So she's forcibly sitting out the first week or two of the Clone Wars, and she's not going to be happy about it one the pain meds start lowering enough to let her think clearly.**

 **And yes, Michelle and Obi-Wan quietly formed a brotp in the background during the time skip. They get along very well because they're both manipulative bastards, and well, like recognizes like. Plus, Obi-Wan is able to notice that on some level, Michelle's particular brand of roguish-ness is a mask. I mean, don't get me wrong, she is actually a fairly boisterous person, but she is forcing it to a certain degree, just because that's the way she prefers to be. Besides, if everyone sees her as a loud, straight forward, 'kill 'em all and let the Force sort it out' kind of person, that means that when her enemies plan to take her down, they don't expect 'quiet manipulation and tactics that destroys everything'. They expect 'WHATS UP FUCKERS IT'S THE LIVING BATTERING RAM'. And that's Anakin's department, not hers. Sometimes the best way to be subtle is to be really, really loud, so that nobody expects it from you.**

 **Have I mentioned Michelle is a Slytherin? She prefers people to not see the snake, and the few people that do don't see the fangs until they strike. Metaphors!**

 **Also, guess what I've been up to lately! Division! Finally managed to start seriously outlining on it, and just at part 3 I can tell it's going to be fucking intense. Andy may not be as manipulative as Michelle, but she's twice as charismatic, and three times as likely to solve problems with some brute force and insane decisions. Have I mentioned she's a Gryffindor. Because she really is. Also I managed to make questionably dental hygine an important plot point and I'm really proud of myself for that. Brush and floss kids. Brush and floss.**

 **Anyways, yeah. As always, reviews make the world go round. See you Tuesday!**


	32. Part 3, Chapter 7: My Own Design

**AN: So, now we have the super fun fic that everyone's read: Star Wars in the form of IM's!**

… **Okay yeah no. Chapter starts with Anakin fulfilling his promise to text Michelle all the horrifying updates about his flirting attempts with Padme. He's trying so hard. And failing hilariously, but. Y'know. Trying. Obviously, Anakin is A.S and Michelle is M.K. You all can work out why.**

 **Also, I'd just like to say. HOLY SHIT. 100 000 WORDS. OH MY GOD. DUDES. MY DUDES. THIS IS A THING THAT I HAVE DONE AND I AM UNREASONABLY PROUD OF MYSELF. 100K. I FUCKING DID IT MY DUDES. AND THAT WAS THE BUILD UP SEGMENT OF THE STORY. I'M AMAZING.**

 **Ahem. Ecstatic screaming aside, enjoy!**

* * *

Part 3, Chapter 7: My Own Design

 _A.S: dude oh my god send help right now immediately why am I so bad at existing_

 _M.K: Mission going well I see_

 _A.S: I SHOULD NEVER BE ALLOWED TO TALK TO PRETTY GIRLS EVER_

 _M.K: I mean same but what happened this time_

 _A.S: okay okay okay_

 _A.S: so i tried to go for a flirt? like just casually because she was like 'oh ani youve grown!' yes its almost like its been a decade I'M SINGLE PLEASE NOTICE ME AS AN ELIGIBLE ADULT_

 _M.K: Was that like. Your actual line. Because that sounds like your version of a pickup line._

 _A.S: now see here_

 _A.S i'll have you know it was not and also fuck you_

 _A.S: ANYWAYS._

 _A.S: so i was like youve grown too padme. grown more beautiful._

 _M.K: Dude oh my god are you serious THAT was your line?_

 _M.K Please tell me you ended it there_

 _A.S: ...okay look_

 _M.K: DUDE._

 _A.S: OKAY SO LOOK_

 _A.S: obi-wan was giving me a Look, you know the one where he's silently questioning literally everything you've done with your life ever_

 _M.K: I'm familiar with that one._

 _A.S: so i tried to walk it back a bit and cover myself so i added on "for a senator, I mean."_

 _M.K: Hey Padme looking good FOR A SENATOR PSYCHE BITCH YOU UGLY_

 _A.S: shut up i hate you_

 _M.K: Okay but dude why would you say that, I've seen pictures, she's such a babe._

 _M.K: Please inform her that I will be willing to comfort her in my arms and also bed after your horrifyingly cruel comments_

 _A.S: i will not be telling her this. Also aren't you still bedridden_

 _M.K: Don't change the subject_

 _M.K: Also, tell Obi-Wan to mock you for me since I can't be there in person._

 _A.S: i will absolutely not do that why would i ever do that_

 _M.K: Because I'm your friend and you love me and I got shot in the chest three days ago and it hurts to just breathe._

 _M.K: Also you seemed like you needed a vacation so there's a nice guilt trip._

 _A.S: you are a very mean person_

 _M.K: =D =D =D_

Unfortunately, Michelle was indeed still bedridden. Because she was shot like, three days ago.

And she was laying awake at midnight. Because her goddamn chest wouldn't stop hurting like a motherfucker.

Apparently, being awake meant that she needed less drugs, which apparently made sense. Lower dose meant more pain.

Also, she hurt too much to sleep on her side. It was like getting shot during her trials all over again.

...Yeah, armour might be a good idea.

So she was left laying on her back, too uncomfortable to sleep. And considering it was midnight, no visitors to take her mind off of it.

Still, could be worse. Coltin could be fussing over her again, like he had when he'd visited earlier. She loved him and all, but the worrying got old after the first hour or two. Honestly, it's almost like she'd been shot in the chest and almost killed. _God._

She came out of her musings, and noticed that she had been thinking for a few minutes. With no response from Anakin.

Huh. Guess him and Obi-Wan were off playing tag with the assassin droid. Fun.

The literal actual movie was happening somewhere out in the city. And here she was. Laying in bed with a hole in her chest.

Fuck.

...Maybe she could talk the night shift into giving her more painkillers.

* * *

When she woke up in the morning, Michelle's first thought was mild surprise that she had managed to fall asleep at all in the first place. Her second thought was that they had topped up her painkillers, which was very nice.

...Maybe Obi-Wan would drop by and update her on what went down last night. She was fairly certain that she hadn't done anything to change events, but it never hurt to be sure. Butterfly effect and all.

That and the fact that she was trying to hold down the panic attacks, and figured that keeping an eye on things was the best solution. Even though she couldn't _do anything about it._

Really. If the Force was behind this, it had a sense of humour. And was a real dick about it.

She passed a very slow few hours laying around, and trying to catch up on reading, before she got a visitor.

"Hey, just dropping in for a minute." Anakin said, sticking his head in the door, before stepping inside.

"Sup. You stopped texting me last night, ran out of battery or something?" Michelle asked, like she didn't already know what had happened.

"No, no, had to do my job. Save the senator and all. It was fun, Obi-Wan jumped out a window, I jumped out of a speeder, Obi-Wan took a break to down some shots-"

"Relatable."

"Right? And then the assassin we were chasing got assassinated, so yeah. So, now Obi-Wan's chasing down the assassin's assassin, and I'm going to a location I can't say with Padme. Alone. Like, solo mission."

"Holy shit. Really? Dude! That's like, the first step to knighthood! Also, just on a casual, note, you've got the next who knows how long alone. In hiding. With Padme."

"...Your point?"

"You're gonna get laid."

"Michelle, you don't understand. I'm not in this to screw her, I want to like, hold her hand, and kiss her, and stay up late talking with her, and have a life with her and all. ...And also do the sex but that's not the most important part."

"Dude. You've got it bad."

Anakin sighed dramatically.

"Yeah, I know. Anyways, Just wanted to say hi, and that I would be gone for a while. So… see you whenever I get back."

As Anakin turned to go out the door, Michelle remembered that oh yeah, this was literally the plot of Attack of the Clones _right now_. And Anakin was about to run off to sleep with Padme on Naboo.

And Shmi Skywalker was probably about to be kidnapped.

Shit.

Normally, Michelle's solution would be to run off to Tatooine on her own, rescue Shmi and call it a day. But since her dumb ass couldn't block a goddamn blaster bolt, she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Guess she would have to Slytherin her way out of this.

"Anakin, wait!" She blurted out, right before he could leave the room. He paused, and stepped back in.

"Yeah?"

"Look, I know you're not allowed to say where you're going into hiding, but it's not hard to guess you're going to Naboo. First place any assassins would check. The better idea would be to send a decoy to Naboo, and go somewhere else. Somewhere nobody would expect. Some little backwater shithole nobody is looking at. Like, say… Tatooine? Just saying. And if you just so happened to check on your mother, well, nobody can argue that. Right?"

There was a long pause as Anakin stared, eyes wide in shock.

"...Michelle."

"Yes?"

"You're my best friend, and we never had this conversation."

"Never had what conversation?" Michelle said blandly, eyebrows raised. Anakin beamed in response, gave her a thumbs up, and left.

Well then. That fixed that.

So, bedridden wasn't completely helpless, considering she could still manipulate.

...Well, she could do that much at least. Geonosis was going to be another brand of problem, and probably not one she could talk her way around.

Shit.

She didn't enjoy being helpless, and wasn't enjoying her situation.

"Note to self. Stop trying to fist fight blaster bolts." She muttered, tipping her head back onto her pillows.

' _And get armour, dumbass. Remember that little plan of yours?'_ Ketros pointed out.

' _Oh, yeah. I'll get to that. After the Clone Wars get going though, since I'm going to get my own battalion. Or… legion? I don't know what it's called. Whatever it is, I'm going to be the general of one. I'll get my armour all colour coordinated. Gotta make sure I match my men.'_ Michelle replied cheerfully, giving the mental equivalent of a shrug.

' _...What if their colour is orange. Bright, neon orange.'_

' _Then Naruto's gonna win the fucking Clone Wars.'_

' _...What the fuck is a Naruto?'_ Ketros asked, in the tone of someone who was very very tired of Michelles weird bullshit, and wasn't completely certain she wanted to hear the answer.

' _Well, that answer depends. Do you want the ten second answer, or the ten hour answer?'_

' _...Oh my god. Luckily, I'm just bored enough for the ten hour version, hit me.'_

' _Alright, let's see how much I remember after five years! So, there's this show, right?'_

While the explanation didn't last the promised ten hours, it still went much longer than any human being would ever want to deal with.

Still, it did pass the time.

* * *

"Good morning. Anakin said something about you messaging him indecent suggestions as to what his bodyguard mission implied, and has asked me to hit you for it. If he asks, I did." Obi-Wan said, entering Michelle's hospital room with a faintly amused grin on his face.

"Nope, no, no no, stop being funny, stop it right now, laughing hurts my chest. Force. You're evil. But like, secretly evil. Also thank you for not hitting me, I appreciate it. Really, you send your friend a few suggestions about boning his crush, and suddenly you're being 'innapropriate' and 'need to stop talking Michelle'. Kids these days, right? Anyways, so what have you been up to."

At this, Obi-Wan's eyebrow raised slightly, in his usual micro-expression of mild concern. Damn secretive bastard.

"Should I speak with someone about your pain medication?"

"Nah, it's not that high, I just like to ramble when I'm impaired. In any way, shape or form. Got drugged once on a mission, I don't remember a damn second of it, but according to Coltin I managed to spontaneously deliver an hour long verbal essay on why exactly the person who had ordered our capture was a basic bitch. I followed that up with two hours' worth of sharing my exact views on why modern fascism poses a genuine risk in today's society, and how non-violent resistance is inherently biased towards the fascists in question, as it inherently suggests that fascist views are a subject that should be calmly debated, implying that viewing a large swath of people as inferior and undeserving of sentient rights is a belief that is normal and based in rationality. Actually, if you think about it, punching fascists is really the only viable solu-"

"Michelle, I want you to know that I while I agree with your sentiment, I'm not particularly in the mood for hearing your political science thesis paper right now. Although I am glad that you're apparently putting your degree to good use."

"Spacism."

"...I see."

"It's like racism, but in space."

There was a brief silence, as Michelle smiled happily at her own brilliant conclusion, and Obi-Wan tried to work out exactly how to respond to that. There was no solution in sight.

Fortunately, Michelle did not pick up on the awkwardness of the situation in the slightest, and carried right on, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"So, Anakin mentioned you had some mission stuff of your own? Finding the assassins assassin, or whatever?"

Obi-Wan grimaced at that, clearly displeased with how his mission was progressing.

"Yes, I've been working on that. It's not exactly easy when the only thing to go off of is a poisoned dart used by a Mandalorian bounty hunter, but I'm lucky enough to have sources. Quite a few, in fact. It does mean this will be rather tedious, but I think Anakin would thank me for taking my time."

Michelle snickered, and then winced as something pulled uncomfortably in her chest. Ow.

She needed to stop taking chest wounds.

"Thought I told you to stop being funny. Also, don't you like… know the Duchess of Mandalore? Old girlfriend or something, couldn't you go there for sources?"

In all fairness, Michelle regretted the words pretty much the second they came out of her mouth. Doubly so, considering Obi-Wan was giving her a _Look_. This was different from his usual Look, in that an Obi-Wan Look involved him silently informing you just how done with your shit he was. A _Look_ meant that on at least some level, Obi-Wan was silently working out every single one of your secrets.

Michelle did not enjoy being the subject of a _Look_. Side effect of having a large amount of secrets.

"How do you know about Satine?" Obi-Wan asked, in a carefully neutral voice.

"Ooh, first name basis, you do like her." Michelle blurted out, efficiently proving that she had lost all verbal filters and survival instincts. "I dunno, I knew that you had a fuck long mission protecting her? Maybe you mentioned it or something, I don't remember. The girlfriend thing is the conclusion I leapt to, and for the record, I am now assuming I was completely correct about."

As a matter of fact, Michelle _did_ know that she was correct about that. But sharing that little tidbit would not help her in the slightest. Survival instincts might have been long gone, but the last shreds of common sense were still clinging on.

This was apparently a good thing, as Obi-Wan relaxed again, potential problem having been resolved.

Between Obi-Wan, Isaac and Zinnia, Michelle really needed some less perceptive friends. At least Anakin had the emotional sensitivity of a rock.

"I did not date Satine." Obi-Wan said with an air of wounded dignity, blatantly lying to Michelle's face.

"You're a lying liar who lies. While lying." She informed him, voice about as serious as she could humanly manage while saying that sentence.

"I'm comfortable with that."

The door opened behind Obi-Wan, prompting both Jedi to look at the apprentice healer entering the room.

"Oh, Master Kenobi. Sorry, I need to change Miche- um, Master Ketros's bandages right now, and then she's scheduled for some scans to check if everything's healing properly, and if her ribs were damaged enough to need some specific treatments… Basically, I'm going to have to ask you to come back later."

"Alright. I'll see if I can drop in some time tomorrow, if that's alright with you?"

"Sounds good. See you then." Michelle said, waving Obi-Wan out of her room. Well, waved as much as one could with limited movement of their arms.

Besides, she had a _super fun_ afternoon of medical procedures to get through.

* * *

 **AN: For the record, the reason that the apprentice healer fumbles on Michelle's name: She's a talky person when high off her ass. Meaning that the poor bastard padawan got the full version of Michelle's fascist punching dissertation already, and after that you tend to default to first name basis. The apprentice backtracked into formal because Obi-Wan was in the room, and he's generally considered to be such a respected knight he might as well be a master already. The apprentice healer was just a bit intimidated.**

 **And yes, Michelle got a degree in political science off-screen during the timeskip between part 2 and 3. It seemed like something she would do. She's putting it to good use. Specifically, writing articles on the holonet under a pseudonym that are all dedicated to tearing Palpatine the fuck apart, with sources. She's considered a weird conspiracy theorist, but has some fans anyways. There's only so many dry political papers you can read before you need to read someone accusing the Chancellor of being satan and calling him a fuckhead. As for** _ **why**_ **Michelle's doing it, everyone needs a hobby and it's a good form of catharsis. If things get to the point where Palpatine can come after her for it, then the whole thing's irrelevant because she's already fucked.**

 **Michelle losing all verbal filters when inebriated is absolutely going to be a thing that pops up. High!Michelle is a lot of fun to write, and honestly tends to drag the scene out for an extra couple hundred words. She doesn't shut up. She just never shuts up. And most of the people she knows are enablers. Her word vomit is not helped by the fact that the chemical cocktail needed to put her down is a bit more potent, given her weird biology. It takes some hard shit. Y'know Michelle's refusal to drink back in part 1? Was completely unnecessary. Her shiny new hybrid biology means that she can down enough alcohol to kill five people and a wookie, and come out of it feeling** _ **maybe**_ **slightly unsteady. And yes. She does eventually discover this ability in the story, and the moment is glorious when she does.**

 **Okay, she's actually already discovered it, but we go into that in the upcoming interlude, which is about an exciting mission from her late padawan-hood. As for what pushes her to try drinking, which she's previously claimed to have some issues with? Well, that's spoilers. But it does end in her getting laid, and a lot. So… victory! And only like, 80% of the entire mission needed to be edited out of the official Council report.**

 **Anyways, again. ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND FUCKING WORDS. That is all. See you Friday!**


	33. Part 3, Chapter 8: My Own Remorse

**AN: Okay, here we go. I'd just like to open with a shout out to Zeus Killer Productions for, yet again, predicting the twist. Honestly, I'm not even surprised at this point.**

 **Those of you with good eyes may notice that this chapter's a lot longer than usual. Yeah. It, uh… it got away from me. There was a lot, and it all insisted on being written here. Sometimes that's how it is.**

 **I'd like to take this moment to tell all of you to brace yourselves, both for an actual character death, and for the funniest joke that will ever be made in this story. …The two are unrelated. They just both happen.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Part 3, Chapter 8: My Own Remorse

"Alright, we'll keep you for one more day of observation, just to be absolutely sure that you're alright to go. And that you don't re-open it before the scabbing is totally set. Remember to _take it easy_. If you come back here at all this month, I will be very displeased." The healer lectured, unwinding Michelle's bandages for the final time, the gauze white and bloodless.

Three weeks. Three _fucking_ weeks to come back from one blaster bolt to the chest.

Yeah, she was never doing that again. _Ever_.

"Alright, alright. Should be a sweet scar though." She commented, examining the mostly-healed wound. This was easy, considering she was stark naked from the waist up. As she always was when getting her bandages changed for the last few weeks. If nothing else, she at least had gotten really desensitized about people seeing her tits. If the whole Jedi thing fell through, she had a lucrative future as a stripper.

...Scars were sexy, right?

Well, considering her career as a Jedi wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, she probably didn't need to work out the specifics of her backup stripping plan. And the shot had been low enough on her chest that the scar would only be noticeably if she went for some indecently lowcut shirts. And considering Obi-Wan had left for Kamino a while ago, she was fairly certain the upcoming Clone Wars would drive her to be almost permanently in some more athletic clothing. She had been saving a sweet coat for just that occasion.

Michelle might be about to fight a war, but she'd look damn good while she did it. Priorities.

And would the healers kill her if she ran off to join Geonosis? Probably. Would they be able to stop her? Unlikely.

Now, if Obi-Wan and Anakin could just take their sweet time getting started.

"Alright, here's your shirt back. Do not pull anything or so help me Force." The healer threatened, handing Michelle her tunic back. It wasn't even really _her_ tunic, just the standard tunic they gave her for her hospital stay. Off-white, loose and light. Comfortable enough for her to put up with lying around for three weeks straight while not allowed to wear a bra.

She was going just a little stir crazy. Just a bit.

Once her shirt was on again, and the healer was fairly certain she wasn't going to re-open her wound, she was left alone. Again.

So very, very stir crazy.

Well. At least she still had herself. And more importantly, she had her political blog. And so much to stress-write about!

Her followers had been both amused and baffled, but that was probably to be expected when she put up a five thousand word essay on how Palpatine stole the cookies from the cookie jar. Badly photoshopped pictures as sources and everything. It probably didn't help that she followed it up with a 3 AM post rating the butts of the entire Jedi council.

It was probably for the best that she kept her blog anonymous. Especially since she had Adi Gallia, Shaak Ti and Obi-Wan all ten out of ten. And Mace had earned a respectable nine out of ten, along with musings on if someone could bounce a credit chit off of it, and a general dare for someone to try.

Basically, if her blog was traced back to her, Palpatine would not be her only concern.

...Maybe she needed to start rating hairstyles instead. Obi-Wan would still get a ten, Mace would still get her wondering on if she could bounce a credit chit off of it.

* * *

The first ripple through the Force was enough to make her drop her datapad in shock.

The second was stronger, more of a wave, and enough to make her wince, and grab at her head.

And then the whole fucking Force seemed to explode.

Luckily for Michelle, she had spent the last five years building up mental shields, for the ultimate purpose of keeping out a goddamn Sith lord. This was made stronger by Ketros's help, their shared mindscape creating the mental equivalent of an atomic bunker.

Sometimes, overkill was worth it.

This came in handy, as the Force disturbance being strong enough to hurt her caused her shields to snap all the way up on reflex, blocking it all out right before the Force fucking exploded.

Oh, she could still _feel_ it, of course she could. But it was muffled and distance, more of a clinical observation. Looking at the reports on a battlefield instead of being in the middle of it. And it let her realise exactly what was going on.

The battle of Geonosis had just gone to shit.

Fuck _damn it._

Outside of her room, she could hear things dropping, other Jedi crying out in surprise or alarm. A youngling started wailing.

Michelle gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, and rode it all out.

And after a few minutes, it was over.

 _Minutes_. To slaughter dozens.

Fucking Geonosis.

...If this was how the murder of dozens of Jedi felt, how would Order 66 feel? Probably about a thousand times worse. She'd have to make sure she didn't find out for sure.

Now that the worse of it was over, she hesitantly lowered her shields, the last few aftershocks echoing away. In the rest of the temple, she could feel distress from the other Jedi in the temple, and around the Halls. Understandable distress, considering everyone had just felt a goddamn massacre go down.

Michelle decided to help via staying out of the way. She really needed to meditate on what had happened.

"Okay, so we just missed that." Ketros said, eyes worried when Michelle joined her in their mindscape.

"Yeah, that was a fuckup on our end. Bad time to get shot. Hey, want to poke Palpatine and see what happens?" Michelle asked, forcing an attempt at a smile

"I mean, you're still an idiot and going to die, but hey, who am I to stop you."

"Nah, nah, not now. Warm up round for goddamn Order 66, that's what this was, and I do not want to check how happy he is with himself right now. Do you think Anakin still lost an arm?" Michelle asked, sitting down and crossing her legs, hands wringing nervously.

Ketros gave a very helpful shrug.

"Dunno. …Hey, do you think everyone's okay? Our friends, I mean? They would have gone, they're the type to go. We know Anakin and Obi-Wan were there, but Zinnia, Seha, Isaac and Neria. Would they be there?"

"Neria? Nah, she's down as a non-combatant, isn't she? She'd never do that, she's probably in a hangar bay right now. And Isaac's just a padawan, he would get tangled up in that stuff. And Seha's literally lightsaber Jesus, she'll come out on top of any fight, especially with all her combat experience. And Zinnia knows about Geonosis. She wouldn't go there." Michelle explained, mostly to reassure herself as well as Ketros.

"...Did we tell Zinnia about Geonosis?"

"What? I must have, how would- why wouldn't I tell her that, I'm sure I did. ...Didn't I?"

"No, you really didn't."

Michelle blinked in shock, before pulling an alarmed face.

"Well, she's not going to be pleased about that. I need to start writing down what I've told to who. This is confusing."

* * *

The rest of the day was spent waiting, listening to the Healers pass along the information they had, and start preparing for wounded coming in. Michelle had been given a firm yet polite early discharge, in order to free up another bed, which honestly worked in her favour. Being able to go back to her apartment and put on real clothes after three weeks was incredibly satisfying, although she'd been given another week before she was allowed to wear bra's again.

And then she waited some more.

Late evening, she got her first bit of personal news, in the form of a text message from Obi-Wan. It was not overly enlightening, just reading ' _anakin lost arm on way back to temple give news then'_. Which was not overly relaxing. A bit after, this was followed up by a dozen panicked texts sent within a minute from Coltin, asking if she was okay and if she knew anything, which she responded with informing him that she was fine, asking if he was fine, and informing him about Anakin's arm. Which, apparently, was one of those things she couldn't fix? Either way, Anakin would bounce back. As long as it wasn't followed up with him losing the other three and taking a lava bath.

And then she goddamn waited some more because apparently this was the running theme of the day.

Finally, _finally_ at around midnight, the first transports from Geonosis got into the Temple. Michelle felt no shame in meeting them at the hangar.

She might have been certain about her friends safety, but a full day's worth of worrying did not help that. She was not the only Jedi to have that idea, with the hangars slowly filling up with various masters and padawans. After all, the mission to Geonosis had been a last minute emergency. Nobody was certain exactly who had gone and who hadn't.

Nobody knew who was dead and who wasn't. Not even Michelle.

"Hey." Someone said quietly, stepping up beside Michelle, and causing her to jump in surprise, before recognizing him.

"Hey Coltin. You know anything yet?"

"Only what you've said about Obi-Wan and Anakin." The man reported, the only sign of his concern being the faint lines of anxiety around his eyes. Michelle could relate.

The survivors from Geonosis started to filter out of the ships, and soon the hangar was being filled with cries of joy from reunions, and grief from the bad news that several of those reunions brought. Worse still was the occasional survivor that didn't have any reunions, some with a look that said they didn't have anyone left to reunite with. As Michelle watched, a teenage girl with a shell shocked expression made her way off one of the ships, a padawan braid hanging from her hijab, and large part of her long skirt soaked with blood. A lightsaber was held loosely in her hand, too large for her grip, and not matching the smaller one on her hip. It wasn't hard to put together what had happened to the girl, and she started to make her way out of the hangar alone.

Michelle started to make to go to the girl, before a bright red tunic caught her attention from the corner of her eye, causing her to turn to look back to the ships in time to see Zinnia leave. As she came down the landing ramp, she caught sight of Michelle, and started walking towards her, expression hard.

Time to delegate.

"Master, I think the padawan over there lost her master, the one in the hijab. I need to talk to Zinnia, can you make sure the kids okay?"

Coltin looked around briefly, before spotting the padawan that Michelle had been watching, his expression softening at the sight of her.

"Good eyes, kidddo. I'll go talk to her."

And with that, he strode off, long legs carrying him easily through the crowd towards the kid.

Really, she was a twenty one year old knight, and he was still calling her kiddo. Apparently surrogate father instincts never went away.

"We need to talk." Zinnia said firmly, grabbing Michelle by the arm. "Now."

She seemed just a bit pissed off. This was probably what Michelle got for not telling her about major events.

Considering Zinnia's anger was very justified here, Michelle let her drag her through the temple, and into the garden they usually used as a meeting spot, practically throwing her in and slamming the door behind them.

"Did you know? Did you fucking know about what would happen?" Zinnia demanded, voice shaking.

"Yeah, I know, I'm sorry, I honestly thought I had already told you at some point. There really wasn't much anyone could do about that, it was bound to be a massacre from the start, and was always going to be the start of the Clone Wars. That's a thing now, and I'm actually pretty comfortable with that, considering I can pretty much name every major event for the next three years-"

"Shut up. Just- how- we're not fucking pawns, you know that, right? You can't just brush off a goddamn massacre like that! You weren't there!"

"I've seen it. In my universe. I know how bad it was."

"Anakin lost an arm, did you know that!?"

"…Yes? In all fairness, he bounces right back, and this is the only limb he'll be losing from now. …Well, he could lose the rest of them and also most of his skin, but if things progress to that point, we've got bigger problems. I'll definitely shut that shit down, don't worry." Michelle reassured, knowing that her friend would feel the truth in the words.

Zinnia stared for a moment, wearing a helpless sort of expression, with her hands formed into white-knuckled fists, and her entire body shaking. Michelle's confidence faltered slightly.

"…What am I missing?" She asked, anxiety making a comeback.

"Isaac's dead." Zinnia practically spat out.

Everything stopped.

Sure, on some level, Michelle knew that nothing had changed except for her expression. But she was absolutely certain that the entire universe had stopped functioning in order to hang in a single, horrifying moment for all eternity, because there was no way that the world could still be turning and carrying on if Isaac wasn't there. The kid who had always managed to get the last word in. The teenager who had somehow been the only person to notice that something was wrong with Michelle, and had spent a year straight trying to help her pull herself into something resembling healthy. Who had somehow managed to convince her into to actually talking about her stress, albeit in abstract terms.

And he was gone. One with the Force.

That wasn't overly comforting.

Numbly, Michelle was aware of her legs giving out under her at some point, causing her to fall heavily to her knees on the ground.

Above her Zinnia sighed.

"Isaac went down in the battle. Blaster bolt to the head, right in front of me. Dead before he hit the ground, wouldn't have felt a thing. Seha… Seha went down too, but she was still breathing when I got her to the medics. Looked bad, but… well, people have lived through worse. Died from less too, but lived through worse. I'll text you if anything changes. Just… you could have warned me. You should have warned me."

And with those quiet words, Zinnia left.

And Michelle was alone.

* * *

A few hours later found her firmly locked in her apartment, enjoying a nice round of crying alone in her room. Because that was how adults handled one of their best friends dying horribly in a manner that they could have prevented.

After she'd gotten her equilibrium somewhat back, she had gone to the place where they were storing the dead, scanning the bodies to find Isaac's. He was just the way Zinnia had said, the left side of his head a destroyed mess from the shot, eyes still open in shock. Her hands had shook, but Michelle had still been able to reach over and close his eyes for him.

She had followed that by running for her apartment and locking herself in to cry on her floor, but still. Respecting her dead.

Oh, Force, Isaac was dead. _God_ , Isaac. Just a nameless casualty of a massacre, not important enough to warrant mentioning.

Well. He mattered to her. Had mattered.

Whatever.

Before going to see Isaac's body, she had tried to go see Seha, but found her in a bacta tank, Zinnia and Neria both holding each other and crying inside the room. Michelle had made the executive decision to get the fuck out of there. One of them would tell her if Seha didn't make it. Right?

There was nothing she could do for her. Maybe there was nothing she could really do about anything. What had her actions even done yet? Nothing.

Michelle hadn't changed a goddamn thing, not really. Maybe she never would.

Before that trail of self-loathing could spiral further, her black thoughts were interrupted by her comm buzzing, receiving a message from Isaac's master. Former master now. She'd never really been close to the man, and he simple informed her that Isaac had apparently suspected they were going into a bad situation on the flight over, and had left messages for people in case he didn't come back. This was followed up by sending Michelle hers.

In her defence, she only waffled for about five minutes before sucking it up and opening up what was essentially Isaac's last words to her.

 _Michelle_

 _Well, if you're reading this. Shit. I'm dead. That's unfortunate._

 _Yeah._

 _What is someone supposed to say here? What do you give someone as your last words?_

 _Well, if I know you (and I really do), you're probably taking this badly. So, I figure the least I can do is give you some final advice, as your therapist, and the groups mom friend._

 _First of all, the most important instruction._

 _Do not avenge me._

 _I don't care if you end up specifically sent after the son of a bitch that killed me, don't you dare kill them. Because there is no possible way you can be dispassionate in that situation, and so help me Force if you end up falling over me, I will never forgive you. If you insist on falling, I expect it to be over something universe-destroying, at the very least. Or just don't fall. That one's my favourite option._

 _Point two. Keep going._

 _I'm not gonna lie, this is going to hurt. The grief won't be easy to work through, and you're probably going to be in a bad place for a while. Maybe a long while. I don't know. However it ends up, I want you to wake up every morning, and know that it's going to hurt less someday. This isn't the end of the world, and I expect you to have a long and happy life, even if it's one without me in it. I'm one with the Force now, as we all are someday. Take comfort in that._

 _And finally. Look. I don't know what the source is of all your stress, and all of your issues. I don't know why you're sad sometimes over things that should have been nothing. I don't know why sometimes it feels like you're mourning something the rest of us couldn't possibly know. But I do know that you can't go on forever if you lock all of that up inside._

 _Find someone to talk to. Open up. Tell someone when you're struggling, get the emotional help that I can't provide anymore. I think that emotional honesty will be the best possible thing for you, and honestly? I want you to be happy. I know, it was hard before I died, and it'll be harder now, but I want you to try. I believe in you._

 _So, my final therapy homework assignment for you is a long one. Lifelong, actually. Live. Be happy. Open up to people. And know that however long it might take you, I will always be proud of you for holding on._

 _It was an honour to have your friendship, as long as the Force is with you, I will be too._

 _Isaac O'Brien, Jedi Padawan_

Unsurprisingly, she cried herself to sleep.

* * *

The next morning, Michelle had gone to see Seha, but found her in the middle of being taken out of the bacta tank, and had quickly been chased off by healers. But those healers _had_ informed her that Seha's survival odds were raising, so that was a good sign.

After getting kicked out of Seha's room, she had asked after Anakin, and tracked down his room.

Unsurprisingly, Obi-Wan had been there. A bit more surprisingly, Coltin had been there as well.

Anakin was still unconscious, and hooked up to multiple monitoring machines, with the stump of his arm covered in what seemed to be bacta. Obi-Wan looked understandably tired, and had a bandage on his arm from where Dooku would have gotten him with his lightsaber during the duel. Him and Coltin were talking quietly, both sitting at the bedside, voices too low for her to hear.

It was probably for the best that Michelle had lingered slightly in the door, considering that as she watched, Obi-Wan slumped slightly, clearly upset. This was expected.

What was very unexpected was Coltin immediately going for a careful hug, which Obi-Wan was… okay with? Honestly it looked…

It looked downright romantic.

At that, Michelle's brain turned into a screaming claxon of 'NOPE NOPE NOPE', as the Parent Romance alarms went off. It may have been a while, but Michelle still had the old reflexes from living with her parents on Earth, and walking in on them kissing in the kitchen or something.

Specifically, run like hell.

She beat a hasty retreat to the end of the hallway, before letting her brain catch up, and slowly turning the alarms to a slightly lower volume.

Really, when in the fuck had _that_ happened?

Well, if the age gap and lesbianism hadn't done it, Michelle's straight-crush for Obi-Wan had just been stomped out completely. There were some things that should never be shared with a surrogate father, and romantic interests was one of them.

Ew.

Now, on the one hand, Michelle wanted to go never think about this ever again. But on the other hand… she wanted to be able to visit one of her injured friends.

Time for the emergency maneuvers of the Parent Romance procedures.

Specifically, walking back down the hall as loudly as possible without being suspicious. As usual, it was a rousing success, both men looking like absolutely nothing had been happening by the time she got into the room. The image of them hugging was safely relegated to her nightmares.

"Hey Obi-Wan, master. How's Anakin?"

"The healers say he'll make a full recovery. Well, apart from… the obvious." Obi-Wan said. It said something about how shaken the man was that Michelle could actually see how much it was upsetting him.

"Anakin's a tough kid, he'll bounce back from this I bet. Besides, it's _Anakin_. He'll probably take a prosthetic arm as his new favourite project."

Obi-Wan gave a faint snort at that, probably agreeing.

* * *

Michelle made a point of staying for a nice, long visit, despite the attempts at subtle hints to leave from both men, playing oblivious like her life depended on it.

Besides, she had sworn to eventually get revenge of Coltin for cockblocking her first attempt with Zinnia. Karma was a time-delayed bitch.

After about an hour of fucking with them, Michelle decided to have some mercy on them and leave. Mostly for Obi-Wan's sake, as he was clearly blaming himself for Anakin's injury. And besides, Anakin was being kept in a healing trance for the rest of the week. She wouldn't be able to get updates on his mother until he woke up.

Really, Michelle had meant to go back to her apartment and try to sleep. But she was still feeling jittery… and as she was leaving the Halls of Healing, a certain Senator was trying to convince the front desk to let her see Anakin Skywalker.

It didn't seem to be going well.

For a moment, Michelle considered going along her way. But, well, Anakin couldn't tell her what had happened… but Padme could.

"Excuse me, couldn't help but overhear, you want to see Anakin?" She interrupted, stepping between the argument Padme and the healer had been having. This had the obvious result of Padme turning her focus on Michelle, and _wow_ those were intense eyes. Michelle firmly reminded herself that making a pass at her friend's future wife would be in very poor taste, and earn her an ass-kicking.

"Yes! He's my friend, and was only in that mess because of me, I want to see him!" Padme snapped, clearly very, very frustrated.

"I was just visiting him, now is… not a great time. Obi-Wan's holding vigil. I wouldn't be too worried, the healers say he'll make a full recovery, but he's being kept in a Force coma for the rest of the week. Nothing you can do. Senator Amidala, right? Come on, you look like you need some coffee or something, Let's go talk."

Padme's eyes narrowed into a glare, and Michelle felt a sudden concern for her own safety.

"I'm not leaving until I can see Anakin."

The healer looked like he was about to say something, but Michelle silenced him with a glare, and a silent yet firm command to leave immediately. He promptly did so. Michelle was amazing.

Despite now being alone, Michelle chose to lean in, lowering her voice to speak.

"I mean, Obi-Wan is with Anakin, being comforted by someone he is very close with, and the least I can do for them is make sure that they have some goddamn privacy for it. And I think you will be leaving without seeing him, because I'm Anakin's best friend, and he tells me pretty much everything. _Everything_ , Senator. We're going to go somewhere quiet, and we're going to have a few words about you and Anakin. Because this thing you two have is risky enough as it is, and you are not helping either of you by making a scene about it. Alright?"

Padme was actually a solid two years older than Michelle, but you'd never know it by the alarmed look she had in response to Michelle's casually implied threats.

"...Fine. Lead the way Master Jedi." She said in a cool tone, quickly composing her expression. Michelle was impressed. Politicians.

Out of lack of better ideas, she took Padme back to her apartment.

"Sorry it's kind of gross in here, I just got out of the Halls myself the other day. Blaster bolt to the chest, you know how it is." Michelle explained, showing Padme on in, and closing the door behind them.

"So. I'll be blunt. Anakin was on radio silence for your mission, so I expect you to be honest with me. Do you love him."

Padme's silence at that was all the answer she really needed.

"Padme, my main interest is Anakin being happy. I need to know to know if I should start preparing damage control just in case, and I definitely know that he loves you. So, is it mutual?"

"...Yes."

"Alright. That's good. Did you two get all that worked out, or…?"

"Look, Master Jedi, I don't feel very comfortable discussing this with a stranger."

"What? Oh, right. I'm Michelle. Ketros."

"Oh, Anakin mentioned you as the scary one, out of his friend group."

"Accurate. Fair warning, if you break his heart, I'm the one killing you with a shovel."

"...You have a lightsaber, why would you use a shovel?"

"Anyone can swing a shovel, lightsabers are too specific. Also, catharsis. But that's not the point right now, you and Anakin…?"

Padme sighed, and looked away.

"Yes, we're together."

 _Finally_. Something was going right for Michelle. Anakin had gotten his future wife.

...Who he would possibly go to the dark side for but hey, who was counting. She would also cause Luke and Leia to become a thing that existed.

"Nice, nice. How was Tatooine?

"Eventful. Anakin saved his mother from a Tusken Raider attack. She was injured, but she's alright now."

"Oh, thank fuck, I was worried about how that would work out. So. Wrap up, if anything happens to Anakin, I'll hurt you, if anything happens to you, I'll kick his ass on your behalf because that's what friends are for, and I also want you to know that I love your work senator, I'm a huge fan. So, as a good friend of Anakin's, and a hopeful eventual friend of yours, if you need help or something, I got you. And before you say anything, yes. I know. I seem like the brute force type. My usual persona is actually a very carefully constructed act, because first of all, I enjoy it, and secondly, nobody's expecting me to be a sneaky fucker. Which I am. And I'd appreciate it if you keep that little detail to yourself, because I don't trust most of the senate, especially a certain Chancellor. You get that, right?"

Padme blinked, processing Michelle's ramble, before frowning.

"You don't just Chancellor Palpatine? He's a good man. He was Naboo's senator during my term as Queen."

"He's a lying son of a bitch, and a terrifyingly good manipulator. Please don't mention a single word to him about me, preferably ever. I know I'm right, and I know I don't look like it, so humour me. I give it about three years before I'm proven very, very correct. ...But that's not the point right now. Honestly, I'd be on your side even without you and Anakin being a thing. I follow politics very closely, and you've been my favourite senator since pretty much always. War just got kicked off, things could get rough. If you need help, you've got me, and I am still talking, and I don't know how to stop. Very aware that this looks crazy, but I'm still going. It… it's been a long day. I'd go home if I were you, I'll make sure you're the first to know when Anakin wakes up, okay? Subtlety goes a long way for keeping things under wrap. And not a word of this to Palpatine!"

Padme gave Michelle a long, calculating look, clearly trying to figure out what the fuck Michelle's angle was. Michelle wished her the best of luck, as she wasn't overly certain either.

"...This may sound odd, but I don't suppose you read articles by Miraamh?"

Michelle blinked, habit the only thing keeping her expression neutral.

"I may occasionally read every single thing they write. What makes you ask?"

"No reason, it just… seems like a journalist you would enjoy."

"Yeah, because they're funny as all hell. Why do you read them?"

Padme shrugged, and grinned a bit.

"Nobody will ever admit it, but they're something of a hit around the senate. Completely insane, but a benign insanity. And, like you said, funny as hell. Goodnight Master Ketros. And… thank you for the offer."

And with that, Padme left Michelle's apartment.

In all fairness, she managed to wait a solid ten seconds before she broke down giggling. Because yeah, she seriously just got recommended to read _her own crackpot journalism blog_.

Always nice to feel appreciated.

* * *

The next few days passed by in a blur, as events started moving. The senate was disturbingly quick to accept the clone army, and it was decided that the Jedi would lead them. The masters around the temple were running themselves ragged, attempting to organize everything, and assign the now-Generals to their new armies. On Michelle's end, she threw herself into work, although her still new knighthood meant that the best she could do was take over tasks for some of the masters, freeing them up to focus on the war. This mostly meant a lot of crèche duty and filling in for some classes, but nobody had ever accused her of being bad with younglings. She was even able to censor herself around them. Her downtime was mostly spent sleeping, or visiting Seha and Anakin. After a few awkward run-ins, Zinnia had forgiven her, although still with the strict instructions to _tell her_ next time something major was coming up.

Michelle had yet to tell her about Order 66. Zinnia didn't need that on her plate for the entire war, and Michelle's goal was to stop it from being an issue in the first place, therefore making it technically not a lie. At least, not a big enough lie for Zinnia to pick up on, so. Victory.

And then the funerals started.

All together, there were a ridiculous amount of pyres, and Michelle didn't feel particularly pressed to attend every single one of them. The exception was made for Isaac's, of course, and she stood with Zinnia, Neria, Obi-Wan and Coltin as Isaac's master lit the pyre. Seha was still unconscious, but had been removed from the bacta tank, and Anakin was scheduled to come out of his healing trance the next day. But as the fire consumed Isaac's wrapped body, she was privately glad. Public cremation was more unnerving than she had thought to watch. Damn Jedi traditions.

Also, Coltin and Obi-Wan were subtly holding hands for about half of the ceremony, and Michelle _really_ hated herself for being observant enough to notice. She didn't want to know. She didn't want to know anything about it. _Ever_. She did not want to think about Coltin having a boyfriend and doing the sex with that boyfriend. Michelle could happily go her entire life without thinking about the subject.

And, considering that she gave Padme the shovel talk, she probably had to give it to Obi-Wan too. Which could be dangerous. Maybe she'd do it over a comm call. While several systems away. At least.

* * *

"Ketros! I've been looking for you!" A familiar voice called, prompting her to turn around.

"Hello Master Windu. Sorry I've been all over the damn place, today's been busy." Michelle said, with a smile that was more of a grimace.

"About that. I assume you've heard the news about the clone army?"

She sighed, running a hand through the unbraided part of her hair.

"Yeah, I have ears. Also, Obi-Wan's been keeping me up to date on everything."

"If he's filled you in on everything, than you should know that all knights and masters now hold the rank of general. Which means command of a clone battalion." Mace said, before giving her a look, waiting for her to fill in the blanks.

"What are you… aw, _fuck._ Which one's mine?"

Somehow, Mace managed to have an even more overworked expression on his face. Michelle was somewhat impressed.

"We've been assigning battalions by their specialities, and which Jedi we think will line up best with them. Andross has been one of the masters assisting with this, and he's recommended you the 420th Battalion. …Are you alright?"

The question was somewhat justified, as Michelle had frozen in the hallway, a look of muted shock and wonder on her face, as thousands of jokes from Earth came flooding back to her.

"Fuckin' incredible." She whispered, the beginnings of a grin on her face.

' _Dude. It's a number. The hell is your deal?'_ Ketros asked, sounding confused and slightly unnerved by Michelle's reaction.

"…Ketros?"

"What? Sorry, I'm fine, just… reminded me of something. Long story. So, can I meet them?"

Mace gave her a suspicious look, which she did her best to look innocent in response to. After studying her for a long moment, he started walking, apparently not feeling like dealing with Michelle's weird bullshit today. That was completely fair. She rarely felt like dealing with her own weird bullshit either.

"The majority of them are in orbit on your command ship, but your commander is somewhere on the main landing platform, ready to meet with you. You want CT 109-399." Mace called over his shoulder as he walked away.

' _Okay, so seriously. What's up.'_ Ketros demanded, now fairly unimpressed.

' _Okay, so there's this dumb joke on Earth. Um, there's a drug called marijuana, also known as weed. It's mostly illegal, or at least it was, and that's a highly controversial point, as it has little to no harmful side effects. And… um, well, on April twentieth, aka four-twenty, that's the official day to protest it. By smoking a ridiculous amount of weed and getting high as fuck. Four twenty basically translates to getting high.'_ Michelle explained, starting her trek towards the main landing platform.

' _So… you're giggling like an idiot over a drug reference.'_

' _420 blaze it.'_

' _I really hate you sometimes, you know that, right?'_

* * *

The situation was not helped by meeting her commander. Because he was wearing clone armour. Including painted markings in his battalion's colours.

Which was how Michelle discovered that the 420th battalion had _dark green_ as a colour.

Really, there was something so perfect about the situation. Not only was there the perfect weed joke set up, it was also handed to her. Literally the only person in the universe who could appreciate it.

Sometimes Michelle loved her life.

And yes, it was the exact same dark green that the clones in her vision during her trials had worn, but that wasn't something she was overly concerned about. She already knew Order 66 was a problem, and it made sense that if things got the point of it being called then her own battalion would be the ones in place to do it. It wasn't their fault, and it wasn't an immediate concern of hers. The weed joke took priority.

"So, um, what's your name?" She asked her clone commander, valiantly impersonating someone who wasn't choking back laughter.

"…CT 109-399, sir." The commander said. Michelle blinked.

"No, I mean your real name. Do you have one?"

"Oh, that. I go by Evie, sir."

"Huh. Nice name. I'm Michelle Ketros, nice to meet you. So, since we're going to be working together for hopefully the rest of the war, I want to make sure that we're doing the best work that we can, and coming off the battlefield with as many men as possible. So, since you obviously know your brothers better than me, I'll want your input whenever you can give it. I mean yeah, I outrank you and all, but I think experience outranks everything, so feel free to raise any objections." She rambled off, shrugging awkwardly at the end.

Through the Force, she could feel Evie's muted shock, mixed with pleasure and hope. So Michelle was making a good first impression. That was bound to help their working partnership.

There was also something else in Evie's Force presence, something… different. Unlike the other clones on the landing platform, something outside of each man's individual Force signature.

Well. Whatever it was that was different about Evie, Michelle didn't sense anything ominous about it. It could probably wait.

* * *

Anakin had been brought out of his healing trance earlier in the day, while Michelle was off meeting her battalion. It wasn't exactly a surprise, as she had remembered to message Padme about it that morning, but still.

Well, probably for the best that Obi-Wan had been the only one there. Best friend or not, Michelle was more than willing to admit that Obi-Wan was the closest with Anakin, and probably the best option for comfort. Especially since most of the emotional trauma of 'dead mother and slaughtered Tuskens' was no longer a factor.

Suck on that Palpatine. Michelle won again.

…And he started a goddamn puppet war, so maybe she could call this round a tie.

Regardless of who was winning the struggle for the fate of the galaxy, the point was, Anakin was awake. And after Padme had made a visit of respectable length (subtlety went a long way), and Obi-Wan had been firmly ordered to _please go home already_ , Anakin was alone by the time Michelle got a chance to visit him.

"Hey." She announced, sticking her head through the doorway before entering. "How's crimes?"

"Considerably weirder all of a sudden. What's up?"

"Y'know, the usual, I'm a General now and I ship out literally tomorrow morning. I'm guessing things are equally as boring on your end." Michelle deadpanned, taking a seat by his bed. Anakin snorted, rolling his eyes.

"Oh yeah, nothing too exciting. Apparently I was fitted for a prosthetic while I was out, so that's getting put on in a few days. Obi-Wan said he ordered the most basic model he could find so that I had room to do my own modifications, he knows me so well. And, I've got some more important news. So… Padme tells me that you interrogated her about our relationship, and gave the shovel talk. So… you already know that we're a thing!"

At the mention of relationships, Michelle paused, wondering if she should fill Anakin in on her own discoveries about the love lives of certain Jedi.

Honestly, if she had to suffer with the thought of her surrogate father being with someone, than so did he. Anakin was getting told.

"Speaking of, you're never going to guess who's an item now. Because I wouldn't have guessed until I literally walked in on them, and it's a little horrifying for me."

"I… was going somewhere with that, but I want to hear this first, lay it on me."

"Coltin and Obi-Wan."

There was a long pause after that, as Anakin stared straight ahead, eyes wide with shock and alarm. The silence stretched to a concerning length of time, honestly.

"…Everything okay there buddy?" Michelle asked, slightly worried.

"No, no, I'm fine, this just came so far out of left field that I don't honestly have a reaction to it. And you walked in on them?"

"Well, hugging, but yeah. They're a thing, I could see. They held hands Anakin. My eyes may never recover."

"Our masters are dating. That is… very disturbing. And not okay. So, before you ruined the concept of love for me forever, I was _going_ to say that Padme came by earlier, and we talked a bit, and… well, I wanted you to know that… we're getting married. Me and her. Don't tell Obi-Wan." Anakin said, assuming a pleading expression. Michelle gave him a confused look.

"You literally just found out that he's dating."

"Yeah, well marriage is a bit more intense than fooling around with someone. Just… please?"

She sighed, sitting back in her chair with a fond eye roll.

"Fine, fine. Congratulations, by the way. I expect to hear all the mushy details."

Anakin saluted her.

* * *

 **AN: WHOO. 8000 WORDS. READ EM AND WEEP. POSSIBLY LITERALLY BECAUSE OF THE THINGS I HAVE DONE HERE.**

 **Okay, so let's unpack all that, because we haven't had a wham that big since part 1 chapter 11. First things first!**

 **Yes. Isaac is dead.**

 **I'm so sorry. Honestly he was literally just made for the purpose of dying here, and I tried to convince myself not to get attached, but in the process of trying to get you all attached so this would hurt, I ended up getting attached myself. So, I played myself. Ouch. No more therapist mom friend. Rip Isaac, age 19. Never even saw a boob.**

 **Okay, big point out of the way let's get this in order so I don't accidentally leave anything out.**

 **Coltin was honestly not supposed to appear in this chapter, but he just sort of put himself on in. He was not the only character to surprise me, another one just sort of showed up and put herself on in. Yeah, the hijabi padawan is going to be showing up again. And yeah, Michelle's conclusion was correct there. Dead master. That's rough kid. Luckily, Coltin went to go comfort her an all that. So while I won't give her name away yet, I will say that she's going to come back, and in a context that starts with 'Coltin' and ends with 'padawan'. Good luck deciphering that incredibly hard to crack code.**

 **Seha is injured, yeah, but she's going to live. She'll be back on her feet and fucking shit up soon enough, and the Seperatists will all tremble in fear, because who needs that many lightsabers? Seha. Seha does.**

 **Also, Obi-Wan and Coltin are absolutely dating. How long has this been going on? I dunno, like a year? Honestly, I meant to have them hook up back in part 2, but I forgot to bring it up during the chapter they were supposed to, and then it just slipped to the side. So yeah. They're boyfriends now, and Michelle is very oblivious and also squicked out because ewww it's Coltin being with someone she does not like those mental images.**

 **Evie! Evie is here! He's going to be Michelle's commander for the foreseeable future, and is honestly so great. They bond. They're gonna be besties. It's gonna be great. And yeah, clone girl is still on the backburner, we're getting there. And before anyone asks: Yes. Yes I did just make that weed joke. Am I sorry? Not in the slightest. It made me giggle. It made me giggle a lot. I need some levity in my life, I just got my marks back for that diploma I wrote and I shit you not it was actually literally 69%. Which is both hilarious and like 10% lower than I wanted so that's been a fun flip flop of feelings.**

 **Also, this is not a big plot twist, but Michelle's penname for her political 'journalism' is Miraamh. It's secretly an acronym, and stands for Mothman Is Real And Also My Husband. It seemed like something she would do. And in all fairness, Palpatine** _ **did**_ **steal the cookies from the cookie jar. That evil bastard.**

 **So, on the note of plot twists, y'know how I occasionally point out how stuff would have gone down in canon? Wellll, had this been canon, Ketros would not have been on the mission with Seha that got her shot, because of her being much weaker in combat. Which would have meant that she was able to join the team going to Geonosis. ...Which meant that she also would have died there, along with Isaac. The ripple effects from this would lead to Coltin spiraling, before eventually getting himself killed in battle with a big heroic sacrifice. Zinnia would also have spiralled, and handled things... considerably different. How different gets covered in Division, which, as you might remember, is set with things having followed their canon events up until Andy gets switched in. So in Division, we don't got no Ketros because Ketros has been dead for over a decade before the first chapter even starts. Yay!**

 **But, of course, Michelle is alive. Coltin isn't going anywhere (for now), and has a much better support network if he does lose Michelle. It's just generally all better. Butterfly effect. Michelle's good at it.**

 **Anyways, see you all next Tuesday for a probably shorter chapter!**


	34. Part 3, Chapter 9: Help Me to Decide

**AN: Hello again! Yeah, not an 8000 word chapter. Unfortunate. That's gonna be a rarity, saved for if there's a lot of related shit to get out of the way. And by rarity I mean will get increasingly common as events progress but not right now.**

 **So, once again, I apologize for killing Isaac, I do not apologize about Michelle's battalion being the 420** **th** **, and yes. Michelle will have armour, and it's gonna be dark green. She's the leader of the Republic's dankest battalion now, she needs to show it somehow.**

 **Also lmao at one point during the time between chapters I literally dreamed that I had a really scathing bad review and it was realistic enough that I woke up sad and had to check my email and my reviews about five times to make sure that it was just my brain insulting everything I've ever done. It got to me man. It really got to me.**

 **My neuroses aside, enjoy!**

* * *

Part 3, Chapter 9: Help Me to Decide

"Hey, Obi-Wan, I've been looking for you!" Michelle called, jogging slightly to catch up with him in the hall. To the man's credit, he paused to wait for her to draw even with him before continuing on his way.

"Hello Michelle. Can I help you?"

"…Well you do still need a haircut, mullet is the least attractive style ever-"

"As you've been informing me for the last two years."

"Well, it's been true for the last two years. I mean for god's sake man, you put so much effort into projecting 'sophisticated diplomat', and then you voluntarily wear a hairstyle that is almost exclusively described as 'business in front, party in back'. … I honestly didn't mean to come here to talk about your hair, but it's distracted me. As your friend. Get a haircut. What does Coltin say about it?" Michelle scolded, well aware that she had diverted herself into ridiculous waters, but not really caring. Besides, she could still steer around onto the right currents, so it was okay.

…Although the nautical metaphors were weird.

"And why would Master Andross's opinion on my personal style matter to me?" Obi-Wan asked, face carefully structured, and a single eyebrow raised in his usual 'I'm giving you one chance to back out before you make an idiot out of yourself' look. Luckily, Michelle was already an idiot, and didn't particularly care.

"Possibly because he's your boyfriend?" Michelle suggested, giving him her best overly innocent look, although she was careful to keep her voice pitched low enough for only him to hear.

Judging by Obi-Wan's briefly shocked expression, she had struck gold.

"What made you draw that conclusion?"

"Obi-Wan. I'm not blind, and I'm not stupid. I can notice when my friend is dating my former Master. And, by the way, ew. I mean good for you two, but… ew. No details please. Ever." Michelle semi-begged, wincing slightly just at the thought of it.

"…I'd prefer you not discuss this with anyone." Obi-Wan admitted after a moment, only a faint flush showing that he was embarrassed with the subject. That was alright. Michelle was embarrassed enough for both of them.

"Wasn't going to, although I have told Anakin. Fair's fair."

Obi-Wan frowned, clearly concerned.

"I'll… have a talk with him about secrecy."

"Yes, speaking of. So, the first thing I wanted to talk to you about. Since I've been giving shovel talks lately, I just want you to know that if you break Coltin's heart, it's going to be my job to break your face. With a shovel. And I really don't want to do that, because your face is honestly a work of art. …That's not flirting, I just appreciate the aesthetics of it. Anyways, but I don't think I need to go into detail because you're trustworthy and I probably couldn't take you in a fight anyways. So! Second point. What are your feelings on like… serious relationships?" Michelle asked, clapping her hands together and giving a blatantly fake smile.

"…Considering I am in one?"

"No, no, no, I don't mean like, having a boyfriend who is another Jedi and will probably be able to let go, and will understand if you do the same when forced. I mean, flat out marrying someone who is not a Jedi and never has been a Jedi. What are your feelings on that happening." She clarified, fully aware that Anakin would probably kick her ass for her line of questioning, but fairly certain it was worth it.

Obi-Wan narrowed his eyes slightly, giving her a long, searching look.

"…That would depend on the circumstances, and which Jedi was marrying outside the Order."

"Okay, okay, fair enough. What if that Jedi was a very close friend of yours?"

At this, Obi-Wan flat out stopped, turning to give Michelle a concerned look.

"Michelle, is there something you're planning on doing?"

She paused as well, blinking in surprise and confusion, before realising where he was going.

"What? Oh, no, I'm not getting married, I ship out in like… good lord, two hours. I can tell you who, but only once you answer the question."

Obi-Wan gave her a flat stare, before sighing.

"It's Anakin, isn't it."

"Yup."

"And he told you not to tell me."

"Yup."

"And you're doing so anyways."

"Someone has to be the real adult around here. So, what's your opinion?"

"I think… that as long as Anakin is happy, I would support him on any path." Obi-Wan admitted, seeming slightly self conscious about it. Damn emotionally repressed Jedi.

"Oh, well that's convenient, he's marrying Padme Amidala when he takes her back to Naboo. I need to go finish packing and report in, see you when I see you General Kenobi!"

And with that parting line, Michelle took the noble manoeuver of running like hell away from the consequences of her actions. Obi-Wan would go straight to Anakin on the issue, and she'd be long gone by the time anyone thought to yell at her about it.

In her defense, she only used her powers for evil _sometimes._

* * *

Obi-Wan's entrance to the room distracted Anakin from his valiant attempt to draw out blueprints for his new lightsaber, with only his remaining hand. It was slow going, which was especially frustrating since he'd had the _best_ idea about the crystal bracketing, and desperately wanted to get it out of his head and onto a datapad, but missing hand meant bad drawings. It didn't help that whatever cocktail of medication they had put him on made his hand shaky.

So really, Obi-Wan's visit was not pulling Anakin away from anything of vital importance.

"Hey Master. Michelle gone yet? She mentioned shipping out today…"

"Anakin, you can't marry Senator Amidala." Obi-Wan said bluntly.

The water glass on Anakin's bedside table shattered spontaneously, thankfully while empty. Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment.

"…You surprised me." Anakin said in explanation. "Fragile things break sometimes when I'm surprised. Also what the hell do you mean I can't marry Padme, I'm an adult, and I'm going kick Michelle's ass for telling you!"

"You're not an adult, you're nineteen, and don't take this out on her."

"…Isaac was nineteen. How come he could decide to go to his death, but I can't decide to marry the woman I love?" Anakin said, quiet yet forceful. Obi-Wan sighed in response.

"Anakin, you've known her for how long?"

"Ten years."

"And how many of those were spent actually with her? Did you know anything about her apart from what you saw on television before three weeks ago? Did she know anything about _you_? I'm not saying your feelings aren't genuine, I'm saying ten years of pining over someone you knew as a small child, then three weeks as young adults is not a basis for a marriage. If you absolutely insist, get engaged. But do not make such a drastic move with a woman you barely know, especially considering _both_ of your lives are ruined if it's revealed." Obi-Wan scolded, in full on lecture mode.

Anakin stared in some confusion.

"So… you don't mind me marrying Padme, just… not immediately?"

"Anakin, all I want in this world is for you to be safe and happy. And marrying a woman you've known for three weeks won't make you either of those things, not long term anyways. Relationships take time and work, and you're both about to become very busy, and probably not see each other for long stretches of time."

About halfway through the first sentence, Anakin had turned bright red, and his eyes were wide with amazement. And possibly misty with tears, although he was bound to deny that straight through to his pyre. And even then blame it on the drugs.

"You… actually mean that?"

"Of course. Whatever you choose to do, I will support you, but I'm urging you to take a more cautious route in this. You and Padme are far too reckless for your own good."

"...Alright, alright. Secret wedding canceled, we'll just get engaged." Anakin said with a sigh, his facial expression saying he would absolutely cross his arms and pout if he had both arms available for crossing.

"As long as you're happy. And Anakin?"

"Whaaat."

"Congratulations."

* * *

 **AN: Ehhhh short chapter today because I deserve a break after the 8k debacle last week and honestly there's not much left to wrap up here. Could I have merged this with last chapter? Yes, easily. Didn't feel like it. This is literally being written right before posting it, and I need to put on clothes to go to my classes so this is what you're getting and you're gonna like it. It fought me and I don't care anymore.**

 **See you all on Friday for a probably better chapter! We have another time skip of a few months to get us properly into the Clone Wars. See you then!**


	35. Part 3, Chapter 10: The Most of Freedom

**AN: Heyo, longer than last weeks. Way longer. And Clone Wars! Real, actual Clone Wars! Tbh, as of like last week all I had for Michelle's battalion was 'Evie + cannon fodder' but the rest of them have just kinda filled themselves in as I went. Because obviously none of them are cannon fodder to Michelle, they're real people that she's responsible for. So yeah. Evie's the commander (same rank as Cody + any Padawan), Doc is the head medic and usually the one patching Michelle up after insane stunts, and then shouting every other medic into submission. Name is self explanatory. Clip is one of the heavy weapons experts, which is to say his job is making things go boom, in as many ways as possible. His signature trick is making a clip of ammo explode, and nobody knows how in the fuck he does it. There's a few others that are less colourful, Heya got his name for starting every conversation with 'hey', Bug is super interested in insects (guessing Kamino doesn't have many/any bcause ocean vs bug rarely ends in bugs favour and there's nowhere else for wildlife), and Whiskey took one swig of whiskey for his first drink, almost choked to death on it, and swore off alcohol forever.**

 **Random clones aside, as is mentioned, the squad has (yet another) set of new designs! Because everyone's fighting a goddamn war, they're less concerned with looking good, and have shifted into dressing for combat and lots of it. And by squad I mean Michelle, Zinnia and Coltin. Seha's combat outfit is the one she had in the last design. Don't fix what ain't broken. Neria doesn't have one because she's a non-combatant, and will spend most of the war working on ships/designing them. Isaac… well, we all know what happened there. And everyone else is canon therefore you already know what they look like! It's on the blog, if you don't know by now where that is then I really can't help you.**

 **Anyways, enjoy!**

* * *

Part 3, Chapter 10: Make the Most of Freedom

Michelle had known that the Clone Wars would go for three years. She had figured that it wouldn't be that long, and she'd be more focused on Palpatine's background machinations. Honestly, she'd half expected it to be kind of _fun_ , considering she would know the exact sequence of events, and be living directly through one of her favourite shows.

Yeah. Not quite.

As it turns out, war was - shockingly enough - _war_. And not very fun.

Sure, there was catharsis in the explosions that she caused. The many, many explosions. And her battalion of clones were awesome, especially Evie. Apparently they had been specifically chosen for her due to having unusually talented pyrotechnics experts, and a general ability to not question weird shit. Which was convenient, because Michelle tended to not have the time to explain her weirder plans while in the thick of things. And Evie was some of the best backup in a pinch that she had ever had, especially given the man's gift for herding the other clones. Made sense, considering he was a commander. He also seemed to have decided Michelle was not capable of caring for herself, which was honestly pretty fair. He'd taken to making sure she stopped charging wildly into battle with no plan or backup. And wanted her to eat at least two meals a day. Like some kind of _animal_.

And after she had offhandedly mentioned wanting armour in 420th colours, Evie had managed to track down some chest armour for her, all dark green, and with the Jedi Order symbol painted on in black on the left shoulder. It was _awesome_ , and had immediately earned Evie the spot of best commander ever. It was a little unfortunate that her badass long coat covered up the symbol, but whatever.

Yes. She had made the long coat part of her battle outfit. It made her feel cool.

On her part, she had been slowly yet surely getting through Evie's shell of professionalism. It had mostly started with her walking in on Evie after an especially long battle, trying to brush out his ridiculously tangled hair. Michelle could relate, and responded by giving him a bottle of her conditioner, and sitting down to help him with the knots. Evie's hair may have been short by her standards, but by military style was ridiculously long. Apparently he liked it long, and she really didn't have room to judge. Instead, Michelle had shown him how to braid it out of his eyes, and called it a day.

It was hard to be unrelentingly professional with someone who gave you conditioner and braided your hair. Not that Evie wasn't giving it his best effort in the field, but during downtime he was getting downright friendly. The man had a very deadpan sense of humour. Michelle could respect that.

He also _hated_ puns, which meant Michelle and half of the higher ranked clones all made as many puns as they possibly could. He probably wasn't going snap and kill them. Probably. Hopefully. Maybe.

Well, the head medic (creatively named Doc) was usually seconds away from trying to strangle them all at once. Starting with Michelle, usually for her fondness to fling herself into battle head first, usually grinning maniacally. As one does.

At least she got along with Clip, the clone in charge of the heavy weaponry. They shared many interests. Like horticulture. And vaguely nonsensical political debates. And obliterating massive amounts of droids with extreme prejudice. Normal things that normal friends did.

So. Overall, war wasn't very fun. But there were redeeming points, and frankly? There were worse people to try and save the Republic with.

Sometimes she could even forget that they had chips in their brains set to kill her at a single order from Palpatine. She wasn't stressed at _all_.

* * *

"Wow, this ship is a piece of shit. What kind of terrible Jedi General would run a dump like this? Clearly, some complete idiot." Michelle said loudly, striding onto the bridge of the flag ship. She was fairly certain that every clone present from the 420th was staring at her with horror behind the helmets, while the 501st and 212th were either shocked, or pissed off. That was fair.

Anakin grinned, and gave Michelle a rude gesture, casually stopping another clone from getting up to probably kick her ass. She could respect that clone.

"Hi Michelle, I'm going to kick your ass." Anakin said cheerfully, cracking his knuckles and walking towards her. Michelle grinned back for a second, before realising that _wait he was serious_.

"Anakin, no! Anakin why? Wait… is this about the thing with Senator Amidala?"

"It absolutely is, remember the part where you weren't supposed to tell Obi-Wan, and immediately did? Snitches get stitches, Ketros."

Michelle made the executive decision of hiding behind Obi-Wan. A very unimpressed Obi-Wan.

"Sir? Should I intervene?" Evie asked, sounding mildly amused,

"Yes! Intervene immediately, come here! Commander Evie, meet Commander Anakin Skywalker, a bitch-ass padawan who should show proper respect to someone who outranks him. And is a real adult, _unlike him_." Michelle sniped, glaring at her younger friend.

"I would argue that last point for both of you." Obi-Wan added, firmly removing Michelle from her hiding spot behind him.

"Shut up and hug me you beautiful bastard. You finally ditched the mullet!" Michelle cried happily, pulling Obi-Wan into a quick hug, before doing the same to Anakin. Hugging was a tough guy thing, right? Right. Well, now it was. They could all use more emotional honesty anyways. Besides, Obi-Wan had _finally_ gotten his Clone Wars hairstyle! …Fitting, considering it was actually the Clone Wars.

"Coltin made a compelling argument." Obi-Wan said with a small smile of clearly fake innocence.

There was a brief pause as Michelle and Anakin both processed that, and immediately did their best to _never think of it again_.

"So, let's get down to business, right now immediately! Rellekka, this shithole again. If… what's his face premier guy is down there and comes across us, I'm going to deck him, and none of you can stop me." Michelle said with some slightly forced cheer, changing the subject to their main purpose of reuniting.

Sometime after their mission to Rellekka, they had managed to get their shit together enough to join the Republic. Which went well, considering that they were now under Separatist control.

But, something something important hyperspace lanes, so Ketros and Kenobi had been sent to go kick them out. And Skywalker was invited too, but he was a padawan and therefore just a side note.

Also, he ruined the alliteration of the Ketros Kenobi team up. Shame on him.

"Yes, let's get to work. Michelle, your talents are best suited to leading the 420th in the ground assault. Anakin and the 501st will be providing you with air support, and I'll handle the orbital battle with the 212th, and assume overall command. Any questions?"

"Yeah, how come you get to decide you're in charge?" Michelle asked, more to be contrary than for any real leadership struggle. They _were_ the same rank after all, at least for the last few months of Anakin's apprenticeship. Then he'd be a council master, and she'd be expected to let him take the lead. She was taking her kicks while she could.

Obi-Wan raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

"Michelle, we want the planet intact at the end."

"…Fair enough, I like a ground fight better anyways. You get the space battle planned, I'll be stealing your padawan and running away to coordinate our ground and air assaults. Commander Evie, stick with General Kenobi, you know how we work, give the heads up if any of his plans will get in our way, give me the heads up if something unavoidable comes up. Nice to meet you all! Anakin, 212th commander whose name I haven't caught yet, let's roll!"

With a general wave, Michelle strode out of the room, coat billowing around her, Anakin and Rex quickly moving to follow.

Obviously, she knew Rex's name, but that was one of those things she technically wasn't supposed to know yet, so eh. She'd wait for him to introduce himself.

Also, was Rex actually a Captain? She'd never gotten that. If he was in charge of the 501st, shouldn't he have been a commander? Life was weird. The army was weird.

Thank god she was completely normal in every feasible way.

* * *

Riding the transports down to landing got less unnerving with experience. Really. Michelle wasn't stressing at _all_. And if her grip on the straps hanging from the ceiling was tight enough to leave her white knuckled, well, nobody needed to know that. That was what she wore gloves for.

Really, she was a grown ass twenty two year old woman, and she still had anxiety attacks. Some things just refused to go away.

At least she was a champion at keeping her face impassive.

As they came down for a landing, she heard explosions outside of the ships, Anakin and the 501st busy covering their landing, in their usual dramatic fashion. Wonderful.

Well, it actually was pretty wonderful, considering that otherwise they'd probably all be fucking dead, but Michelle was in a bad enough mood during landings to find a good excuse to silently loathe anything and everything.

The transport touched down, and the doors slid open. Despite charging onto a battlefield, Michelle's mood instantly lifted, lightsaber flying to her hand as she charged out with her men.

Really, it was much less terrifying when her life was in her own damn hands.

* * *

About twenty minutes later, the battlefield was now _considerably more terrifying_. Mostly due to the fact that the Separatist base had heavy artillery, and judging by the amount of explosions, a fuck ton of it. Once they got it firing, the bastards managed to drive off the aerial support, and then turned it on the Republic ground forces. Which was somehow even less fun than one would assume.

Also, Michelle had managed to get a bit ahead of her troops, which was just _great_. She loved getting shot at with fucking artillery while alone, and very obviously the Jedi General.

"ANAKIN, COULD REALLY USE SOME BACKUP HERE!" Michelle yelled into her comm, diving behind a crashed Separatist tank, in the hopes that it could take a few blasts for her. "THE ONLY CURE FOR THESE EXPLOSIONS IS MORE EXPLOSIONS!"

Goddamn heavy artillery. Specifically Separatist heavy artillery, as if she had command of that sort of firepower Michelle would be having the time of her fucking life.

But it was significantly less fun when they were aimed at her.

" _Sir, we can't hold out against this artillery much longer!"_ Evie called through the comms, sounding stressed. Michelle could relate.

"Yeah, working on it, SKYWALKER, DO NOT MAKE ME COME UP THERE!"

" _Sorry sir, General Skywalker's a bit busy with a situation, what do you need?"_ Rex responded, sounding mildly stressed.

"Guess it's you and me Rex. Alright, I'm gonna make a big-ass distraction on the ground, you'll know it when you see it. Most or all of the artillery should get pointed at us on the ground, so I'll need you up there to get in real fast and destroy them with the bombers. Can do?"

 _Sounds good sir. Waiting on you."_

"Awesome. Evie, order everyone to fall back, I'm going on alone. Bombers are going to destroy the artillery, be ready to move in when they do." Michelle ordered into her comm, wincing slightly as a blast rattled the tank she was hiding behind. Things were about to turn _ugly_.

At least she looked good.

" _Sir, I swear to fucking god-"_

"Complaint noted, fuck the fuck out!"

She stayed behind the tank a moment longer, and was pleased to see a steady retreat.

Well. Time to single handedly cover everyone's asses.

Michelle palmed her lightsaber, and took a deep breath, centering herself in the Force. Because what she was about to do was incredibly stupid and possibly suicidal.

"Leeroy Jenkins." She whispered to herself, stupid old humour taking the edge off the fear.

And then she ignited her lightsaber, turned, and force-pushed her tank shelter towards the Separatist stronghold.

People usually forgot that, on some level, every Jedi was a creature of the Force. And while they focused on the serenity part of it all, the Force was inherently chaotic. Meaning that if any situation became desperate enough, and a Jedi had enough motivation, they could _fuck your shit up._

It took the Separatists about three tossed tanks to figure out that the lone Jedi was a _bit_ more dangerous than the army retreating behind her. Unfortunately for them, by that point Michelle was already very rooted in the Force, and had no plans of coming back up any time soon. Artillery began to shoot at her, but she saw it before they fired, zipping across the battlefield with Force-enhanced speed, dodging around the explosions before they even went off. Dimly, she registered that the Separatist commander was _losing his shit_.

Good.

She made a point of staying just far enough away that the aerial bombardment wouldn't get to her when it happened (already happened?), instead keeping her distance, and hurling as many pieces of debris as there were, sending them to cause the maximum amount of damage. In the background, Michelle could feel the muted shock from the clones registering through the Force. The tiny part of her still focused on the physical could hear Evie shouting in her ear through the comms, but the words were lost to the roar of the Force.

When the bombing began, she was almost surprised, still dodging out of the way of a blast that would never come. Which just made her disorientation worse, but whatever.

Blankly, she was aware that the artillery had stopped firing, and bombing was coming to a stop, with the 420th charging into battle. Michelle was fairly certain she was supposed to be joining them, but the Force was crashing over her like a tsunami, and a pounding headache re-married her mind with her body.

...Why did everything hurt?

Slowly, Michelle sank down to her knees, not really processing the army rushing forwards around her, or the hand on her shoulder, or the familiar helmet kneeling in front of her.

Someone was calling for a 'General', but everything was already going black. Michelle was more than happy to collapse into her Commander's arms.

* * *

"...isn't going to be pleased about this."

"Well, what could we do? You were in orbit, and I was off playing tag with a Force-forsaken air fleet. Rex and Evie were the only Commander's she could get through to, and neither of them would know enough to stop her."

"I doubt that will matter much to Coltin if she doesn't pull through."

"Let's not bring your boyfriend into this Master, I'm scarred enough as it is. And she's probably going to be fine, Doc said her brain waves are bouncing back to normal. Besides, have you heard what the media's saying about her? That much attention, she'll wake up just to bask in it."

"Well, if it were you, maybe."

"Now see here-"

Michelle groaned, the sound weak, but enough to cause the conversation to stop for a moment, silence briefly hanging in the room.

"Did she just-"

"Yes, I thought. Michelle? Can you hear us?"

"...Fuck me." She rasped out, opening her eyes, and immediately closing them again at the bright light. "What happened?"

"You almost killed yourself like a dumbass. Because you're a dumbass." Anakin said helpfully,

"You opened your connection to the Force too deeply, and almost died from the physical and mental strain. You've been unconscious for almost two days." Obi-Wan added, sounding both concerned and quietly furious. This seemed bad for her future.

"Did we win?"

"...Yes. We won. Well done you suicidal idiot."

Obi-Wan seemed _really_ pissed off. She would have to do something to make it up to him.

"M' sorry." She mumbled, already feeling herself slip back into sleep.

Obi-Wan sighed, sounding tired.

"Please stop doing things to get yourself killed?"

She didn't respond, already gone again.

* * *

The next time she woke up, it was to Doc standing by her bedside, switching out an empty IV bag for a fresh one, not looking at Michelle.

"Sup." She said, making the medic jump about a foot in the air. In her defense, she _had_ waited for the IV bag to be hung up first.

"General! You're awake again! General Kenobi and Commander Skywalker said that you'd woken up briefly, but you hadn't been overly lucid. How are you feeling?"

"A lot better, honestly. What's your medical opinion?"

Doc shrugged.

"Dunno. You had some scrapes, burns and bruises from playing tag with explosions, but physically nothing was seriously wrong with you. The Jedi said that it was some Force shit that almost killed you this time, best we could do is monitor your brainwaves. I don't know what the hell you did, but it was scary as all fuck. Please never do that ever again. Evie's going to strangle you with his hair."

"Good, that's how I've always wanted to die."

"Right? Also, Clip would like to have words with you, and those words all start with 'holy fuck everything exploded', so that conversation should be enjoyable for you." Doc deadpanned, checking a different bag near the foot of her bed. "You think you're good to walk, or should I keep the catheter in?"

"...Lemme check first." Michelle said carefully sitting up, wincing at the head rush. Standing up didn't immediately lead to falling down, which was always a nice sign. "Yeah, take it out."

"Can do."

* * *

"General." Evie said, entering Michelle's tiny room in the medical wing. Which she was apparently confined to for another day, just to make sure that she wasn't dying. A common concern, really.

"Evie! I've been watching the news, you would not believe the shit they're saying about me, and I love it! They've nicknamed me 'The Destroyer' for my stunt, how hardcore is that? And I only had to almost die horribly to get it. I'm amazing. I have a fan club!" Michelle said cheerfully, gesturing to the newsfeed playing on her datapad.

Oh, sure, she knew damn well what was going on with all the media coverage. Michelle's new-found fame had been given to her for the exact same reason as Anakin and Obi-Wan. Sure, she was good. She knew that she was unusually good by Jedi standards, had spent most of her time since her arrival in the dimension working just for that, due to knowing what was coming. Her, Anakin and Obi-Wan were skilled and entertaining, which meant fuckall in the long term. The main reason was that they were all _incredibly_ high up on Palpatine's watch list. Anakin had probably been filed under 'future apprentice' since day one, Obi-Wan was literally the only Jedi in a thousand years to have a Sith kill count, and Michelle had 'mysteriously' figured out literally all of his plans as a teenager.

Yeah. They were all on one hell of a watch list. And if he could use the media to do his stalking for him, why not?

One of Palpatine's worse traits was that he was a sneaky bastard. Because Michelle couldn't help but respect the son of a bitch for his tactics.

"...General? You're zoning out on me." Evie pointed out, eyebrows raised in minor concern.

"What? Yeah, no, sorry, was just thinking about whether my fan club's gonna be bigger than Anakin and Obi-Wan's." She said, shrugging with a grin. Evie rolled his eyes.

"Sign me up for General Kenobi's fan club, he's not as bad as you and Skywalker."

"One time he jumped out a window in upper Coruscaunt after an assassin droid and rode it around for like 15 minutes, just kind of… hoping that Anakin would show up with a speeder in time to catch him."

"...Fuck, you're all insane."

"Pretty much! Come, sit down, Doc won't be by for a while, he just changed my IV like an hour ago-" Michelle started, before cutting herself off at the sight of Evie's noticeable wince.

"Nope, nope, nope nope, we're not talking about that, I refuse, we are not discussing the concept of IV's, or needles, or anything. Hate them. So much." Evie complained, noticeably shuddering.

"Are… are you telling me that you can happily charge into battle beside me, but are afraid of getting a needle?"

"It's a perfectly legitimate fear! Do you realise you're just… letting people stab you?! Stabbing! That is what's happening and I refuse to take it! Not unless I absolutely have to and even then they'll have to catch me first!" Evie yelled, pounding a fist on his armour for emphasis. Michelle snorted.

"Wow, tell us how you really feel. Y'know, that's a really unfortunate phobia, considering your name kinda sounds like-"

"Oh, don't you start, I know where my name came from you complete asshole. I gash my knee open during training one time, get a serious infection, and then I wake up in the medbay a week later, and my brothers won't shut up about how apparently I responded to the antibiotics by slurring about 'not wanting any ee-vee's'. So yeah. _I know_."

The gravity of the rant may have been lost on Michelle, as she had been giggling for half of it.

"That's amazing, is that actually how you got your name?" She managed to get out around the laughter.

"Could be worse, could be worse. Whiskey got his by trying to take his first drink of alcohol - from a bottle of whiskey - choking on it, coughing so hard he passed out, and then swearing to never drink again."

And that set Michelle off laughing again.

* * *

 **AN: Question: Did Michelle just almost kill herself with the Force for the sake of a meaningless victory in a puppet war?**

 **Answer: YUP. Ironically, at this stage, her Star Wars love is working against her, because despite the whole 'war is hell' thing, a not insignificant part of her brain is screaming "OH MY GOD I'M IN THE CLONE WARS THIS IS AMAZING". So she's accidentally acting against her own best interests sometimes, and just not realizing it. Michelle, winning should not be your first priority you know there's no winners in this situation except Palpatine.**

 **That's part of the downside to her getting Palpatine squared away like 5 years ago, because holding a stalemate for that long means it's her status quo. So 'fuck up Palpatine' has been a sidenote in her brain for so long, she has literally forgotten he's the main threat. Don't worry, she remembers eventually, and it's honestly my favourite moment ever when she does. Her reaction is a thing of beauty. And then she starts trying to slow the train down and accidentally derails it off a cliff. Nobody knows what's happening! Anarchy!**

… **But like, give it a bit. Part 4 has the Ryloth arc, the Geonosian brain worm arc, and the Zillo Beast, with a fair amount of original stuff happening alongside it. Part 5 is entirely the Citadel and Slaves of the Republic arcs, and is where the train completely derails and never really manages to get back on the tracks right. Oh Michelle. I actually looked up the canon timeline for this, and teeechnically speaking Zillo Beast comes right before Geonosis, not after, but honestly I think everyone can forgive me for fudging one detail and moving on.**

 **And honestly, I didn't even mean it, but the sentence "The only cure for these explosions is more explosions" is literally Michelle's entire battle strategy in a nutshell lmao.**

 **So yeah, Michelle is famous now. Kenobi-Skywalker has become Kenobi-Ketros-Skywalker. The Hero With No Fear, The Negotiator, and The Destroyer. Michelle is very fond of her name because while she pretends to be a Skywalker type, she's actually a hell of a lot closer to Obi-Wan's manipulations, and everyone expecting her to be straightforward explosions makes it a lot easier to follow through on her real goals. It's not very hard to get away with things when nobody is looking. And you'd better believe that the holonet very quickly decides that Kenobi-Ketros-Skywalker is a threesome in every sense of the word. Despite Obi-Wan having a boyfriend, Anakin having a fiancée and Michelle being a lesbian. It's how the holonet is, just roll with it.**

 **Also hope y'all like Evie because next chapter has a lot of him. A LOT. Evie needs character development the most right now really, because he's going to be relevant for a very long time. What role is played…. Spoilers.**

 **See you all Tuesday!**


	36. Part 3, Chapter 11: And of Pleasure

**AN: Oh man, this and chapter 12, and then we are DONE with part 3! And apart from the delay which shall not be spoken of earlier, there was literally no moment of 'oh shit am I gonna actually fill this many chapters'. Things are really picking up!**

 **And yeah, this chapter was delayed on account of me getting sick. It was awful and everything is awful. Except this chapter which is good and fun, and also enough of a bombshell kinda that once again I explain it all at the bottom.**

 **Also, I accidentally plotted! Remember that stuff at the start of chapter 8 about how the treatment for her blaster wound desensitized her to people seeing her breasts? Yeah. Yeahhh. That wasn't supposed to be plot but it IS. Just gonna file all of it under 'things that would never be allowed to air on the actual cartoon'. Luckily we're not there yet, considering Anakin's still a padawan. So yeah I didn't mean for there to be a plot point centered around Michelle's tits, but that's certainly where we have ended up. It… it's not graphic or anything, it's more for the fact that naked/partially naked people are funny. There are no flowery descriptions, just a lot of internal screaming.**

 **And we have a first here! The entire chapter's from Evie's POV. No Michelle in sight! Well, plenty of Michelle in sight, but we don't get to know how her head's working, so whatever.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Part 3, Chapter 11: And Of Pleasure

The first explosion rocked the base, the emergency claxon's following a moment later. In the officers mess, the sabbac game was immediately abandoned, blasters and helmets being grabbed. On his part, Evie was up like a shot, sprinting straight for the command center.

"Report!" He snapped as soon as he was in.

"Sneak attack by the Seppies, commando droids destroyed all our turrets on the North side. All clankers on base destroyed, but there's a hell of a lot coming in from the North!" A shiny reported, alarm leaking through the professionalism. Evie clapped the kid on the shoulder.

"Chin up rookie, we'll make it through. Where's the General?"

"What's the sitch!?" General Ketros yelled, bursting in through the doors. Speak of the devil.

"Commando droids took out the turrets on the North side before being destroyed, but we've got an attack coming in from there. Sir, what should we… do..."

Evie's voice trailed off after he turned around, eyes wide beneath his helmet. The command center went dead silent, except for the clatter of several troopers dropping whatever they were holding. Beside Evie, the shiny that had reported made an undignified squeaking sound.

"What? I was in the shower." Ketros explained, sounding slightly defensive. This would explain why she had shown up soaking wet, and wearing a towel. Just a towel. And there was not a lot of it.

And it was only wrapped around her _waist_. Leaving her entire torso very naked, and on full display.

She was athletic. She was ripped. _She had a fucking six pack_.

And _breasts_.

Evie was not ashamed to admit that, like most of his brothers, his experience with naked women came entirely from the holonet. In person was more than a bit different, especially considering the fact that she was still dripping water on the floor. A large scar sat in the place of honour between her breasts, looking like it was from a blaster shot, and a dozen other smaller scars littered her torso, speaking of about a decade worth of Jedi missions and combat.

In short, she was quite possibly the most attractive person Evie had ever seen.

He wanted her.

He wanted to _be_ her.

It was all very confusing.

"Hot _damn_." Someone muttered, snapping Evie out of his staring.

"Right. Er, your orders, General Ketros?" He said, slightly louder than necessary to remind the men that this was their _General_ they were all blatantly eyeing up. Never mind the fact that he had just been doing so as well.

"What's the usual plan? Go fuck shit up. I mean, no turrets, so… this ones on manual. Get the biggest rocket launchers and ammo we've got, have them get set up on the North wall shooting at the Seppies. When they get a bit close for comfort, switch to some of our bigger blaster guns. I want them decimated before they get to us. Meanwhile, since they're coming right at us, I'll cut around through the forest, one woman army them from behind. Be good kids, Evie's in charge until I get back, I want to hear good things from the babysitter."

And with that, Ketros swept out of the room, her usual battle grin already forming.

After a moment to process everything, Evie ran out after her, somehow unsurprised to find that she was not detouring towards the personal rooms.

"General!" He called, jogging to catch up with her long strides. "You're not actually going straight out there?"

She raised an eyebrow in amusement, walk not pausing in the slightest.

"The Seppies aren't exactly going to give me time for my moisturizing routine."

"Sir, you are literally wearing nothing but a towel."

Ketros paused at that, looking down at her body with mild bemusement, as if she genuinely hadn't noticed her state of undress yet.

"Huh. So I am. … No shoes might be a problem. Nice catch! Supply rooms on the way out, right? I'll grab some boots while I'm moving, it'll be fine. Don't worry about me, you've got some explosions to coordinate!"

And with that, the General was off, Jedi speed carrying her down the hallway before Evie could point out the whole naked detail.

Well. She was an adult. And a General. She could make her own decisions, and if one of those was to fight an entire legion of clankers wearing nothing but a towel and stolen boots, then that was her own problem. The best thing Evie could do for her was follow her orders and get his men in place as pseudo-turrets.

…Even if he would _kill_ to see Ketros fighting in just a towel.

* * *

After the battle was won, Evie was unsurprised to see a tired looking General Ketros limp in through the front gates, looking exhausted yet triumphant, towel filthy, but still firmly in place. And from her dishevelled, mud covered appearance, her usual insane fighting style had involved sliding around on the ground, which the mud would have helped with… but gotten all over her in the process. It was almost impossible to tell that the towel had been white, and her hair was caked with the stuff.

And she was not wearing the promised boots.

She caught sight of him, and approached with a grin, ignoring the many stares around her.

"So, that was a thing that worked, and it was amazing." She said cheerfully.

"And you're still barefoot." He deadpanned. Ketros shrugged, having the decency to look slightly ashamed about it.

"Yeah, turns out that my feet are too big, the boots did _not_ fit, couldn't get my ankle in. For some reason I thought that there'd be like… different sizes. I don't know why I thought that, but I did. I'm tired, little details slip through sometimes. It's fine, I'm only bleeding from my feet, I'll be okay. Need another shower though, that's going to suck. I _hate_ sleeping on wet hair. Mine's thick enough I wake up with it all damp still, eugh. Worst thing. Ever. Still, beats sleeping in ten pounds of mud, so I'll suck it up." General Ketros complained, gingerly making her way back into the base. Looking immediately behind her was enough to show that she was leaving a trail of blood, barely visible in the mud, but still there.

According to the Jedi, the clones were all different levels of Force sensitive, although none were strong enough to be able to actively harness it and move things. As an overall fact, if you asked any brother on the battlefield where his general was, he'd immediately point in the right direction. On the part of the Jedi, it was easier for them to do their mind-reading on the troops, and for the more sensitive ones, to occasionally speak right into their minds. Evie was not one of the more sensitive ones, and if even if he had been, none of the clones could get that psychic reading off of each other.

Despite this, Evie could have sworn he felt Doc screaming in horror and rage at the fact that their General was walking on whatever the fuck she had done to her feet. And that he was letting her walk on whatever the fuck she had done to her feet.

And, well. Evie was a good brother, and he would never admit it, but he was slightly intimidated by the medic.

"General? I don't think you should be walking right now." He pointed out, making sure to match her slow, uneven pace. She gave an amused grin in response.

"What, you offering to carry me?"

"Yes. To the medics."

General Ketros gave him a long look, before staring at the muddy ground, generously speckled with rocks. Finally, she sighed.

"Just until we get inside."

The good-natured jeering as he did so was mostly ignored, considering that Evie couldn't glare them into submission with his helmet on, and Ketros didn't seem to care enough to do it herself. Instead, she was resting her head against his chest (which definitely wasn't distracting at _all_ ), and seemed to be occupying herself with quietly humming something, eyes closed, and a small grin on her face.

Despite her instructions, he ended up carrying her all the way to the medics. Which she didn't notice until they got there.

* * *

"Alright, so the Seppies know we're here. More specifically, they know _I'm_ here. So they're currently preparing for a massive assault, and like… good for them. So, I think it's time we inform them that I'm not actually as stupid as I like to act. We're playing this one stealthy. They've occupied the legislature, this big ass building in the middle. What they don't seem to have noticed is that they are literally surrounded by apartment buildings, all around 15 or 20 stories taller than them. Dumbasses. So, we're going to do this carefully. All the apartment buildings are deserted – the civilians are at various labour camps around the planet. Teams of two sharpshooters sneak into every building, and set up near the top floors with sniper rifles. At sunrise, the main forces march into the city. As soon as the droids notice, the snipers unload. Main target is the commander, but take out as many as possible before being found. When the droids figure it out, and send people up after the teams, they'll head up to search the floor that shots came from. The snipers destroy the elevators on the way in, and set up silent motion sensors on the entry. When the droids enter, slide down the elevator shaft to a random floor, let off a couple dozen shots, then back to the elevator shafts. Keep randomizing it. Really fuck with them. Aaaand once they catch on to you, bail out and join the fighting on the streets. So! Here's the teams and locations. Whiskey, Joy, you're going to this building. Red, Drive, this one. Ticker, Click, you take…"

Evie tuned out as the General went on assigning buildings, as the plan had already been laid out by the two of them earlier. He was fairly certain his General was completely insane, but she _was_ a brilliant tactician. When she felt like it.

When she didn't, her ideas tended to start and stop with 'explode everything'. Evie would admit it on his fucking deathbed, but he _loved_ missions like those. As long as the General wasn't flinging herself head first into said explosions. Occasionally while wearing only a towel around her waist.

No, that wasn't a recurring dream Evie was having, that would be ridiculous.

"And me and Evie will be in this building. Evie will be sniping, and I'll sneak out before sunrise, get inside of their base, and just generally raise hell. Any questions?"

Evie watched as the General gave the last few orders, and started divvying up the different teams for entry times. Business as usual.

At least she was a very hands on sort of General. Terrible at delegating though, she would have worked herself to death in the first week of the war if it wasn't for Evie conspiring with Doc to make her eat and sleep. Evie's arms were getting awfully sore from _carrying his battalion_.

"Hey! Ready to head out?" Michelle asked, her cheerful grin having a slight edge of mania to it. Standard pre-battle fare for her.

"Good to go whenever, sir."

"Awesome. Let's roll out."

* * *

Evie settled into the abandoned living room, dropping his sniper rifle on the couch, and checking the windows for the best angle to use with his shooting in the morning.

"Let's try not to turn on lights while we're here, supposedly abandoned and all. Moonlight will do fine to see by. So! Dinner?" The General said cheerfully, rifling through the cabinets.

Evie removed his helmet, mostly so that the General could see his raised eyebrow.

"Sir, isn't that technically stealing?"

General Ketros shrugged, not overly deterred.

"Technically speaking, we're breaking and entering right now. We're saving their planet, least they can do is feed us for the night. ...I'll leave some credits and a note, it'll be fine. I mean, the autograph alone would sell for millions with some of the weirder and richer members of my fanclub. Still can't believe I have one of those, seriously. So, what do you want? Ooh, pancakes? I can make some mean pancakes."

Evie sighed, and entered the kitchen with her, figuring the General was in need of some adult supervision. Despite her being older than him.

"General, I'm not sure if I trust you with food preparation. And I say that as someone that has never even boiled a pot of water, but I still think I might be more trusted with that sort of thing."

"First of all, wow, rude. Secondly, it's just us, we're taking a break to have dinner, you can call me Michelle. It's okay. And third, I'm actually an awesome cook, sit down and watch how it's done." Michelle said cheerfully. Behind Evie, a chair slid out from the table, seemingly all on its own, and a gentle, invisible nudge sent him sitting down in it.

...Damn Force powers.

Evie may have been entirely more fond of his General than he was supposed to be, but the Force stuff was _creepy_ sometimes.

Not that it changed anything. If the Towel Incident had given Evie any great insights, it had definitely made it clear that he had some feelings for the General that he was really not supposed to have. On a double layer, considering that she was both his commanding officer, and very much a lesbian. As the clone of a man, that made Evie right out for options.

As for the weird envy about seeing her shirtless… Evie was fairly certain that was something about her abs. Definitely. Anything else would be weird. Right? Besides, they were very impressive abs.

Michelle mumbled to herself while cooked, apparently trying to verbally track her recipe while making it. The light from two of the planets moons filtered in through the window, illuminating the room with soft light.

It was really unfortunate that clone training did not include a module of 'what to do when you're alone with your very attractive General who is making food for both of you and there's mood lighting and the entire thing feels like soft music will start any second now'. Because that was a module Evie was suddenly in desperate need of.

He was startled out of his increasingly alarmed thoughts by Michelle placing a plate of pancakes in front of him.

"Food!" She said cheerfully, before taking another chair beside him, and pouring something over her meal.

Evie poked his with a fork.

A few bites in, Michelle seemed to notice something was wrong.

"You good, man?" She asked, looking mildly concerned. "I can actually cook well, that's good food right there."

"I've never had pancakes before. It's usually just… ration bars, or mess hall stuff." He admitted reluctantly.

"...Oh, right. Well, they're not poison, my dude. Put some of this on it, and then go for it." Michelle said, shoving the bottle she'd used over to him. Evie dubiously added it, and then joined her in eating.

"...Holy fucking shit, that's better than commissary food." Evie declared, eyes wide.

"Right!? God, I miss the Temple. My kitchen is so nice, and only has a few scorch marks. Whenever we both get leave to Coruscaunt, you should come over, it'll be great. We can be all… non-military. Like, more than I usually am."

Evie snorted, and went back to eating.

Once they were finished, Michelle pushed her plate back, and sighed.

"Okay. So, I'm going to be totally honest here. I had some ulterior motives for doing this. I… kinda want to have a real talk with you, and it's mostly some guess work, and I want you to hear me out."

Evie paused, giving her a suspicious look.

"If this is you trying to convince me to try and get you some of the more interesting explosives-"

"No, no, this is serious. And I know I'm not allowed to get the good explosives anymore after the Kazac Incident. I'm still very sorry for that by the way. ...That's not the point. So, y'know how I think I've mentioned that despite the whole clone thing, you and your brothers all have completely different Force signatures, right? Like, you're all very different people, physical appearance aside. And well, that much variation, some things are just inevitable in some clones-"

"Sir, what are you getting at?" Evie demanded, trying to keep his face blank while pushing his General to get to the point.

"Look, I've been noticing something different about you literally since we met, and it's taken me awhile to figure out what it was. And it didn't really start to like… get really obvious until the Towel Incident, and it's been more of a thing lately, and I don't think you've totally noticed, and I'm very fond of you so I figured I would help, because I've got the background to explain this sort of thing and you… don't?"

"General. What's going on?" Evie said, voice flat.

"I'm… kind of pretty sure that you're a girl?"

"...Sir, I was grown in a lab. I think someone would have noticed that particular deviation about… twelve years ago."

Michelle let out a long sigh, blowing her bangs back away from her face.

"I mean… that's like, your sex, and that's something that I don't pretend to have the science background to understand because it's such a complicated subject. But gender, that's something I get, and that's all head stuff, y'know? So, technically speaking, I'm pretty sure your physical stuff is standard clone - aka basically Jango Fett - but I think your head stuff is Evie, and I think that Evie is… yknow. Not a guy." She explained awkwardly, not making eye contact and giving vague wave of her hand at the end.

Evie stared, lost for words.

"So… yeah. I think you're transgender. And that's okay! I mean… I don't know. I'm really bad at this. I… can hook you up with some reading on the subject? And like, you can get surgery and hormone replacements to be more 'female' or whatever, or not, but either way you're still whatever gender you want to be. And I've been talking for too long, and this is getting awkward, so I'm gonna… go. The droids won't infiltrate themselves. …Or, maybe they could, but today I'm doing it. So like… maybe think about using she/her as your pronouns? If that works for you. I'm going to run away now, you have fun with your sniping enjoy your night!"

And with that, Evie's brave and noble General ran from the apartment like Dooku himself was chasing after her.

…On second thought, wrong metaphor. Michelle would probably try to fight him too. She was stupid like that. And amazing.

And what the hell was all that about Evie being a girl? He would have noticed that. …Wouldn't he?

It wasn't like he'd had a lot of examples of human women in his life. Michelle had been the first one he'd met.

And after he had met her, Evie had talked about the idea of long hair so much, Doc had gotten fed up and pulled some strings to get him some hair growth enhancer, and told him to do his own thing. The result of which was long enough Michelle had needed to teach him how to braid so that it wasn't constantly in his face.

And then there was the Towel Incident, and the inexplicable envy from it. From Michelle's torso. Specifically the breasts. In that he wanted… his own?

 _She_ wanted her own.

"…Oh fuck. I think I'm a girl." Evie said blankly, sitting down heavily on the couch beside her abandoned sniper rifle.

Goddamn Jedi making her goddamn life complicated.

* * *

"Well, we liberated the shit out of this place. Did you see me rip that one droids head off with my foot? That was awesome and so am I." Michelle said cheerfully, leaning against a crashed tank while talking with Clip.

"I think that's called kicking a head off, sir."

"Okay but consider this: it sounds cooler if I say I ripped it off with my bare feet."

"…I thought Evie banned you from fighting barefoot after the Towel Incident?"

"Yes, yes I did, if your boots so much as need re-tying on a battlefield I will do something treasonous. Sir." Evie said, walking up to the pair. Clip jumped about a foot in the air, and the General flat out flinched in surprise.

Good to see she still had it. It being the ability to scare the shit out of people.

"Hey Evie! How… us, how's it going?" The General asked, clearly trying to subtly ask if Evie had decided on a gender.

"It's going fine General. By the way, about what you said last night? I think you were right."

And with that, Evie made her dramatic exit, leaving Michelle staring, expression shifting from shock to joy, while Clip tried to ask what she had meant.

Yeah. She definitely still had it.

* * *

Surprisingly little changed after that.

Clones were a lot of things, but family was one of the top priorities for all of them. Word spread fast around the 420th, and pretty soon it was a common fact that Commander Evie was a sister.

Not even the only sister, as she was pleased and surprised to discover. After Evie had passed along the news, General Ketros had followed it by casually sending every clone in the battalion a quick explanation on the matters of gender and sexuality (correctly) guessing that they had not had any sort of education on the matter. Within the week, the 420th battalion contained eight sisters, including Evie, and three siblings. And General Ketros, who might as well have been a sister from the way she got along with them all.

And sure, there was still a war going on, but that wasn't going anywhere, so same business as usual.

Well, for the most part.

"Hey, Commander? Commander! Sir, message for the General, priority communication from the Temple. It's not classified or anything it just… said that she should know before it hits the holonet." Heya reported, handing over a small sheet of flimsiplast, face pale.

Due to the 'not classified' thing, Evie felt justified in checking the message before handing it over, figuring her General wouldn't appreciate being distracted during her downtime for nothing.

Reading the message, Evie was fairly certain that under her helmet, she was also going pale.

Oh.

Shit.

"I'll tell her at once. She's… going to take it badly, I think." She said, some grief of her own surprising her at the news. She may have only really known the man from what Michelle said about him, but his death was going to devastate Michelle. She _had_ been close to him.

Well, better get it over with. Michelle deserved to know immediately, so she could have the most of her downtime to mourn, or meditate, or whatever Jedi did after losing one of their own.

"General? Sorry to disturb, but… bad news from the Temple for you." Evie began, knocking on the door to Michelle's personal quarters, calling through the door. It was opened almost immediately, the woman in question dressed in her sleep clothes, clearly just about to get into bed. Despite this, her eyes were sharp.

"What's wrong?" Michelle asked, worry in her expression. Evie sighed.

"I'm sorry Michelle, but… General Kenobi was killed in battle a few hours ago."

* * *

 **AN: Well that was a boring ending, I don't even have anything interesting to say here. Wow. Not a wham line in sight. See you all later.**

 **So, those of you familiar with certain EU comic events will know exactly what's going on here. As for the rest of you… well, google is your friend, or you could stew in it until next Tuesday. Your call really, I'm not the boss of you.**

 **And on a happier note, surprise! Evie's a girl!**

 **Okay so where this aaall started. Once upon a time I saw a post on my dash about how maybe some clones would have a mutation that made them come out as girls, due to there being a very small difference between the sexes in early development. And my knee jerk reflex was 'yeah that's not likely the Kaminoans probably wouldn't let such an obvious anomaly develop. BUT with so many clones, all specifically stated to be individuals, there's probably a fair amount of clones that are trans girls, they just… probably don't get educated on the matter. And there is, and they don't! So that was what Michelle found different about Evie at first. Subconciously being a girl. Who is crushing on Michelle – now with compatible genders! I figure that statistically speaking, there's around a three or four thousand sisters in the clone army, and juuust over a thousand siblings (aka non-binary clones). Gender is complicated. You can't be cis in space. You just can't. So I started writing a oneshot for trans clone, who was originally a rank and file soldier (still named Evie), and decided fuck it, random old OC is good enough for the General. Then I started outlining Displacement, realised I needed a clone Commander for Michelle, and hey, why not move Evie on over there. So this chapter is basically part of the one shot I was originally going to do. Kinda got away from me, didn't it?**

 **Does Evie ever go for the surgery? Well, she'd need some good sized leave to do it, recovery time and all. So it's not impossible, but not for a while. And only then if she wants it enough to use up a large chunk of leave time on just surgery recovery, along with voluntarily going into surgery, which isn't a thing clones do often. So we'll have to wait and see just how strong her body dysphoria turns out to be, and if there's anything she realllly wants/needs it for.**

 **And THAT is my reasoning for female clone Michelle had a vision of during her trials. Surprise fools, she was trans all along!**

 **Also for the record while Michelle was being carried to medical at the end of the Towel Incident, she was humming the bridal march to herself, because she was slightly loopy, that was the only position she could be carried in without a risk of flashing other parts, and honestly she found it funny. I'm very proud of the Towel Incident. Also, unless an Incident is specifically gone over in story, it's just a noodle incident, and feel free to ignore it. Like, the Kazac Incident? Kazac is probably a planet, and all that means is Michelle did something with explosives there, and it was probably insane. Insanely awesome, that is.**

 **Any transphobic reviewers who want to stop in are formally invited to fuck themselves, as Evie will be a part of the main cast for a very long time.**

 **See you Tuesday!**


	37. Part 3, Chapter 12: Nothing Ever Lasts

**AN: Heyo, we're back. I know, cliffhanger was rough last Friday, but here we are! Answers have arrived!**

 **So yeah, this is the Jabiim arc, and I'd like to pre warn with I've never actually read it (hashtag broke) I've just seen summary's. So that's going to have to be Michelle's knowledge of it too, just for practicalities sake.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Part 3, Chapter 12: Nothing Ever Lasts Forever

Obi-Wan's funeral was very nice.

At least, Michelle assumed it was. The only Jedi funeral she'd been to was Isaac's, and there had been a lot of pyres burning with his. Nobody got nice arrangements.

Just this once, she'd like a friend of hers to die of old age. There wasn't even a _body_.

Which, of course, was because Obi-Wan wasn't dead, but it wasn't like anybody but her and Anakin actually knew that. Anakin because Force bond, Michelle because cheating.

…Kind of. She had no idea what the hell went down in the Jabiim arc, beyond Obi-Wan being presumed dead, Anakin being pawned off onto some poor bastard, and Obi-Wan actually being Ventress's prisoner. Also, something about a sith torture mask, whatever the hell that was. Sounded ominous, at least.

She hadn't thought that the arc would have been real – she'd had it down as extended universe after all, and therefor not canon. But maybe some of the EU things were accurate after all. It wasn't like she could really research on the EU she didn't know, so it was irrelevant anyways. She'd have to play it by ear.

When the news of Obi-Wan's 'death' had reached her, Michelle had almost had a complete breakdown, coming close to shaking apart on the spot. Considering he was supposed to live to see the Death Star, and she was the only changed variable, if he had died, it would have been entirely her fault. After the details had come through, she had remembered the existence of the Jabiim arc, and had calmed down a bit, shifting from near hysterical to firmly keeping herself under control. At least, under enough control to return to Coruscaunt and attend his funeral. Even if the pyre was a symbolic gesture at best.

Anakin stood beside her, at the head of the empty pyre. Various friends of Obi-Wan's were also in the front row, with Coltin having taken the space of the other side of Anakin, and refused to move. But she'd already talked with him, and let him have a good cry on her shoulder. He wasn't okay by any matter, but he'd probably keep it together until Obi-Wan was found.

Fucks sake. This was all very depressing.

When the empty pyre started to smoulder down to embers, people began to file out, starting with the back rows, and eventually the people right in front of the pyre reluctantly trickling away.

And at the head, Anakin didn't move an inch, head still bowed in vigil.

Coltin hesitated a moment, tear stained eyes glancing between the embers, the still padawan, and Michelle. She gave a pleading expression, and jerked her head towards the door, motioning for him to leave. He matched her stare for a moment, before sighing, mouthing the word 'later' at her, and leaving.

And then it was just Michelle and Anakin.

"So… do you know what's going to happen yet? With you?" She asked, awkward. Under the cover of the hood, Michelle saw Anakin's mouth twist into a scowl.

"Not yet. The Council says they'll assign me to… someone. I don't care."

His voice was raw, and made it more than obvious that a great deal of time had been spent crying in the last few days. Michelle didn't feel any real need to point that out.

"He's not dead. I can feel it, he's still out there somewhere-"

"I believe you."

At that, Anakin's building rant came to a complete stop, and he broke the posture of his vigil, turning to stare at the older Jedi with shock.

"You- what?"

"I believe you. Obi-Wan's still alive. Fucker's too stubborn to die, so if you say he's out there, I believe you. He's out there. Nice sham funeral we just held, make sure to pull the tapes so we can show him when he gets back-"

"Well- then, you're a knight, you can back me up to the Council, we can go with a rescue mission-"

"Go where? You'd feel it if he was still on Jabiim, right? If you can't, then he's not. For all we know he's locked up in Chancellor Palpatine's basement or something. …Probably can rule that one out, but still. And besides, what do you think will happen if we both burst into the Council chamber, flailing about how Obi-Wan's alive? They'll ignore us both as in denial from grief, and make sure we don't get anywhere close to off planet for a long time. Nah, we're going to pull this off, but we're going to be subtle about it. We'll play the Council like a fucking fiddle, just you wait." Michelle explained, grinning mischievously at the end. Anakin began to give a tentative smile in return, before his face fell back into a scowl.

"Might be hard, with me having to work around whatever asshole they assign me to."

"I'll do it."

"…What?"

"I'll be your master. Temporarily, obviously. Just until we get Obi-Wan back. Besides, he'd probably kill me slowly if I didn't look out for you while he was gone. And what's the point of having friends that are knights if they can't cover for your ass now and then?"

Anakin's face finally broke into a smile, albeit a watery one. Once again, she didn't comment on this.

"Thanks Michelle. You're the best."

"I do try."

* * *

The problem was, of course, that Michelle knew exactly where Obi-Wan was. At least, she thought she did. He was at Rattak, being held by Ventress. Would be?

Fucks sake. This is why she should have paid attention to the extended universe.

So, she knew exactly where Obi-Wan was, but wasn't completely sure he was there yet. And if she went charging in to the rescue too soon, he might not be there. Meaning they'd never find him, because why take a secret prisoner to a base that the Jedi just tramped all over?

Yeah. Michelle really could have gone without this stress in her life.

But sometimes to get good things done right, you had to be a bit ruthless about it. So to be safe, Michelle decided to wait two weeks before running off to Rattak to pick up her dumb friend who got his dumb ass captured and made Michelle worried and stressed.

And yeah. That was a generous amount of time, but she had to be _absolutely certain_ she didn't move too soon and lead to him vanishing to be tortured to death at god knows where. Even if that meant he would probably be tortured during the hang time.

He had taken like, two months of it originally. He could handle a fortnight. And she definitely didn't feel guilty for thinking about one of her friends in such cold terms.

For some strange reason, Michelle hadn't been sleeping very well. Which in all fairness, might just be because she had been moved into Anakin and Obi-Wan's quarters, considering she was now Anakin's master. At least she'd managed to hold on to her apartment by claiming that she wanted some time for Anakin to adjust before she moved all her stuff in.

Also, something about sleeping in the missing-presumed-dead Obi-Wan's bed felt really uncomfortable to her. She had tried on the first night, and had ended up staring blankly at the ceiling for hours, her brain cheerfully reminding her that Obi-Wan was probably being tortured _right now_ because of her choices.

Also, a secondary Asshole Intrusive Thought had been repeatedly informing her that odds were good Obi-Wan and Coltin had done the sex in that very bed.

Which had been about the point where she gave up and slept on the couch.

' _You know… I hate to be that guy, but this entire place is Obi-Wan's apartment. Him and Master probably got to the couch at some point-'_

' _Ketros, you are one of my dearest friends, but if you don't shut the fuck up right now I'm going to find a way to put you on mute. Forever, if possible.'_

' _That's fair.'_

* * *

Three days before her Rescue Obi-Wan plan could begin, Michelle had a nightmare.

This wasn't exactly unusual. She'd had a lot of nightmares in her life. Usually about the crash that had led to her switching dimensions, at least when she was younger. These days it was usually various battlefield traumas, and with more frequency. As well as the general fear of Order 66 that was hanging over her head.

For a start, this one had a blurry, yet completely real edge to it, which made no sense, but was how it felt.

And it was about Obi-Wan.

Kind of?

It was hard to tell. It was just fuzzy images, a cell, a clone, hands, tools, blood, _pain_ , _desperate, help, still alive, help, still here, HELP ALIVE HELP._

And the entire thing was tinged with the general impression of Obi-Wan, despite being a disorienting cluster fuck.

When she woke up, things were very confusing for a moment. First of all, because someone was screaming. And the second point was because she was falling off the couch.

She banged her elbow against the table of the way down, and flailed her way back to something vaguely resembling upright, kicking her legs out of the blankets.

The screaming was still going, and for some strange, delusional moment, she wondered if it was her. But that would be ridiculous, because her mouth was closed, and the only sound she had made was a yelp of pain as she hit her arm. The screaming had to come from someone else.

…Someone else in the apartment. Which narrowed it down to one option.

Aw, shit. Anakin.

She maneuvered herself out from between the table and the couch, and semi-stumbled over towards his room. Fucks sake, was it five in the morning?

"Anakin, wake up! ANAKIN!"

Her shouting didn't seem to have any effect, and if the objects flying around the room were any sign, going in would be a bad idea.

Well. He could forgive her for this later.

And she used the Force to shove him off the bed.

He came up gasping and flailing in confusion, probably the same way Michelle had after her own gravity induced awakening.

"Obi-Wan? Where- What- oh. Michelle. …Michelle! I saw him, I saw Obi-Wan, he was in a cell somewhere, he's being tortured, we need to go save him!"

In an instant, Michelle figured out what was going on.

Obi-Wan was probably trying to reach through the Force to inform the Jedi that he was alive, and not in the greatest situation. And would have followed his strongest bond, getting through to Anakin in the form of a really trippy vision. And due to Michelle being in close proximity to Anakin, and having bonds with both of them, she got a distorted aftershock of that, which came out as an even more trippy vision.

Fun. And educational.

Obi-Wan was on Rattak now.

Time to go and pick him up.

"I know, I saw it too. Did you feel where he was?"

Anakin's face fell.

"No, I… all I saw was a cell. Shit!"

"Well, that's convenient, because I got it. Let's go drag the Council out of bed, we need to get a battalion to Rattak. You get Rex, Cody and Evie, I'll go tell the Council, let's go!"

* * *

"What the actual fuck."

"Master Ketros, mind your language-"

"Fuck you! I just told you Obi-Wan's alive! I've handed you his location on a fucking platter, what the fuck do you mean we can't go get him!?" Michelle yelled, gesturing angrily at the Council. They seemed unimpressed.

"Master Ketros, while we have the deepest sympathy for your and Padawan Skywalker's loss, the fact remains that Master Kenobi is dead. We will not waste our troops and time chasing down a delusion."

"But I had a vision! _Anakin_ had a vision! I know he's alive, I know where he is, he's being tortured as we speak! I- fine, don't let me take the troops, I don't even need a battalion, just let me and Anakin go get him. _Please._ "

"Clouded on this matter, your vision is. Much guilt from you, I feel. Gone, Obi-Wan is. Let his memory go, you must."

"Thank you Master Yoda, that's very nice, except HE'S NOT FUCKING DEAD!"

"Master Ketros, we must insist that you calm yourself!" Luminara ordered, voice making it clear that this was _not_ an optional request.

Michelle took a deep breath, and re-evaluated.

They didn't believe her. They weren't _going_ to believe her. She had miscalculated their faith in her.

Bunch of fuckers. Michelle couldn't wait until Obi-Wan got on the Council and gave them some common fucking sense.

Which wouldn't happen if she couldn't fucking rescue him.

Alright. She'd tried asking permission, and it had gone nowhere. Time to switch tracks.

She sighed.

"Forgive me, masters. What I saw was the distorted echo of what Anakin saw. It… is possible I did not interpret it correctly. And it was incredibly disorienting, I… am somewhat distressed. With your permission, I would like to meditate on the matter of what I saw. I'm willing to realise that I am biased by my own feelings, and grief over Obi-Wan's death. May I be excused?"

"You may. Guard your emotions, Knight Ketros. Obi-Wan is at peace now."

Michelle bowed, and left, holding back the automatic snark. Because no. He really wasn't at peace. He wasn't even one with the Force.

"Anakin? Change of plans, the Council's got their heads up their asses. We're doing it ourselves. Authorized or not. Just kidding, it's not authorized, there's no chance we're allowed to, and we're going anyways. Tell the Commanders false alarm."

She closed the comm link with Anakin, and opened a different one.

"Hey, Neria?"

" _Michelle! Hey, I heard about Master Kenobi, are you-"_

"Fine. Look, I need a ship, and I need it fast."

" _Like… a fast ship, or a ship right now?"_

"Both would be good."

"… _Is this another one of your no questions asked requests?"_

"If it's not too much trouble."

Neria gave a long sigh.

" _One of these days I'm going to find out what the hell you're up to. And it's going to be amazing. I'll call in some favours, but you owe me for this. How big of a ship do you need again?"_

Michelle paused, and thought for a moment.

"Technically two people, but I'm sure there'll be more. Better make it big enough for… about half a dozen people. And armoured. And with a small medbay, well stocked."

" _Michelle, are you doing something stupid?"_

"I am doing something very stupid. Anakin's helping.

"… _Oh thank the Force, I always said you needed more enablers. I'll send you the details in a bit, Neria out. You lunatic."_

Michelle decided to pretend she hadn't heard that last part. Neria was getting her a ship after all.

Michelle had _awesome_ friends.

* * *

When she received the details about the ship pick up, Michelle sent them along to Anakin, ordering him to meet her there. She was unsurprised to see him arrive with Rex, Evie, Cody and Doc.

Well, mildly surprised at the last one.

"Not a medic from the 212th?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at the four.

"We drew straws. I won." Doc explained.

"Ah."

"Not surprised by the unexpected crew I see." Anakin pointed out.

"Anakin, please. I have met all of you. Like any of you would stay behind. You are all aware that this is an unauthorized mission, yes? We'll probably be in trouble when we get back. Any of you can leave now, I won't think any less of you for it."

There was a silence as the four clones exchanged looks, before Cody stepped forwards.

"Sir, with all due respect, as long as we return with General Kenobi, any amount of trouble is worth it."

"I'm not letting you go out there without someone sane to watch your back." Evie added.

"He'll be injured when you find him. A medic is non-debatable on this mission." Doc said, mouth set in a stubborn line.

"And I refuse to put up with any more of Commander Skywalker's moping. Let's go."

Michelle snorted, the comment getting a grin out of her.

"Alright, I'm sold. Let's fly! Anakin, you fly."

As they left Couruscant, Michelle took a last look at the Temple. The Council wouldn't be overly thrilled with her for what she was doing, but, well. They could deal.

And the pre-recorded message she'd left them explaining their absence probably wouldn't be _too_ inflammatory.

…Yeah, they were kicking her out for sure. Fun fun.

* * *

When they reached Rattak, they hung in orbit around it for a while, searching for a building.

"Are you sure he's here General?" Doc asked, mouth in a tight line of worry.

"Yes I'm sure. He's there, I know it." Michelle said tersely, staring at the scanner as it looked for the stronghold.

"I… I think I can feel him." Anakin said slowly, face twisted in concentration. "It's faint though, like he's being blocked somehow. I think we're in for trouble when we land."

"I've got something! Looks like a fuckin' fortress! Think that's where the General is?" Rex asked, looking over at Michelle. She nodded, and gave a grim smile.

"We've got him. Alright, Doc stays in the medbay, Obi-Wan's going to be hurt when we recover him, and we can't risk you going down in combat. The rest of us will infiltrate the facility. Remember, there's only five of us going in. Stealth is key, we don't want to make this a big fight. If we get separated, whoever finds Obi-Wan sends out a single beep on the comm channels, that's our signal to get the fuck out. Take us down Anakin. Let's get our favourite idiot General back."

As the ship descended through the atmosphere, Michelle reached into the Force, trying to feel Obi-Wan. Unsurprisingly, there was nothing. She just didn't have the raw power that Anakin had to get through a Force block.

' _Luckily you just know everything. Neat bit of cheating there.'_

' _Ketros, why do you hurt me in this way.'_

' _Just keeping you humble.'_

* * *

They made it into the facility relatively easily, Michelle and Anakin finding a way for them to sneak in with the Force. And then… they started wandering aimlessly.

It's not like they knew exactly where he was. Sure, Anakin had a direction, but that wasn't very helpful in a building with hallways and shit.

The plan may not have been completely thought through.

When they tripped a sensor, it wasn't overly surprising.

Neither was the droid attack.

Ventress was a bit of a twist.

Luckily, Anakin was tied up dealing with a particularly lucky droid, meaning that Michelle was the first one to cross blades with Ventress. Leaving her immediately drawn into what promised to be a hell of a fight, while Anakin and the clones were open. Free to keep searching.

"Leave! I'll handle her!" She yelled, promptly blocking the next few strike from the Sith, and placing herself between her and the others. Anakin and the group clearly took the hint, and got the fuck out of dodge. Ventress scowled, and attacked again, this time locking blades with Michelle, the two pushing against each other, testing strengths.

"General Ketros, I presume?" Ventress flat out purred, leaning in on the blade lock a little too close for Michelle's comfort.

"Please, call me Michelle. So sorry to invite ourselves in, but we dropped a Kenobi a while back, and I believe you picked it up. We'll be taking him off your hands, if it isn't too much trouble."

' _Oh my god, do not hit on the Sith assassin.'_ Ketros sighed in the background, sounding very annoyed with the situation.

' _I'm totally gonna hit on her. Hey, Obi-Wan flirts with anything that displays mild antagonistic intent towards him, I'm allowed to pull out the charm on one crazy assassin.'_ Michelle replied, before breaking the blade lock, making a sweep at Ventress's ankles, one which she jumped above, taking the opportunity to kick Michelle in the face while she was up there.

Yeah. This was going to be _fun_.

* * *

In the end, Anakin found Obi-Wan before Michelle. This was obvious, as she was a little tied up throwing down with Ventress, meaning that she hadn't known the rescue was successful until her comlink beeped, and she had beat a tactical retreat from the situation.

So she didn't get to see Obi-Wan until she was back on the ship, and the medics had had a go at him. Or rather, were trying to, as Anakin showed no signs of leaving anytime soon, making Doc get fed up and call her to pry off the padawan barnacle.

"Anakin, what's this I hear about you pulling Doc's ponytail?" Michelle said, swanning into the med bay like she owned the place. Which she technically did.

Her vague showmanship stopped the second she got a proper look at the Obi-Wan, who was awake on the bed, but looked like he wouldn't be for long.

"Holy shit you look terrible." She blurted out, quickly joining Anakin in obstructive vigil.

"I've felt better." Obi-Wan admitted. Coming from him, that was the equivalent of screaming in agony, which didn't help her concern.

He clearly hadn't been fed much, if at all, and was noticeably skinnier than he had been the last time she saw him, to an unhealthy degree. His hair was matted, unwashed, and bloody, and his bare torso was covered in wounds, including what looked to be whip marks. He had also obviously been shackled, judging by the way his wrists were rubbed raw.

"Maybe I should go back and kick Ventress's ass some more." Michelle mused, doing her best to contain how upset she was at Obi-Wan's injuries. At least he was alive. They'd gotten him back alive.

"Michelle, please don't start." Obi-Wan sighed, eyes closed with exhaustion.

Ah. And the guilt was back. At least for different reasons this time.

"Sorry. I'll go release my anger. Anakin, come meditate with me so we can make Obi-Wan happy so the medic can work on him. Also, when we get back to Couruscant we can give history's biggest 'told you so' to the Council. I don't know how bitchy you're imagining it as, but it's going to be even bitchier than that."

And with that, she manhandled Anakin out of the medbay, and locked them both in the cockpit.

"Okay. So. There's a lot of feelings going around here, and I feel like the best option here is for emotional honesty. So, if you want to cry or something, I'll never speak of it ever again. I think it would be a good idea to meditate, but if you don't want to, that's cool too. And if you just want to talk... ay. Good friend here. I can keep my mouth shut."

Anakin squinted suspiciously.

"What's brought this on? Trying to get one last hurrah as master before you pass me back to Obi-Wan?"

Michelle sighed, and sat down in the co-pilot's seat, Anakin taking the pilots. Outside, the endless blue of hyperspace whirled by.

"It's not that. When… when Isaac went to Geonosis, he knew he might not come back. He left messages for some people, and in mine, he… he basically asked me to keep everyone together for him. To not let us all fall apart. To get some emotional honesty around here. And well, who am I to ignore my dead friends last request, right? So… I guess I'm just trying to do what Isaac would have done. I don't know."

Anakin turned his chair to look out the window.

"We never talk about Isaac. Never even mention him. It's like he just… stopped existing. Like he'd never been there at all. And we're not even allowed to grieve."

"It's not that we can't grieve, it's that we can't let that grief overwhelm us. We feel it, and we accept it. In time, we let that go. Nobody can just… turn off emotions. We're not robots, Anakin. I miss him. I miss him a lot. And… I guess I don't bring him up much because I figure the rest of you miss him too, and I don't want to claw open any wounds that might have been closing, y'know?"

"…Yeah, I know. I blamed myself. When I thought Obi-Wan had died. I thought it was my fault, and… and when the walker exploded, I just thought to myself, oh Force. This is because of me. I could have saved him, but I wasn't good enough."

"You should tell him that. I'm sure he's felt the same way. I mean, he did see his master die, and… well, it was pretty real in his case."

"…Yeah, maybe. It's hard to talk to him about these things. I feel like… if Obi-Wan knows how badly I'm doing, he'll be disappointed. And even if he isn't, I'll still feel like he is. Sometimes I just… think about how much of a mess I am, and how horrible it would feel if Obi-Wan really knew, and I'd honestly rather just die."

At this, Michelle sat up slightly, looking over at her younger friend. He was still staring out the window, not making eye contact.

"…Do you want to? Die, I mean."

"No? Not really? Just… sometimes I get thoughts like that. I'm not going to do it or anything, it's just… hard. A lot."

Michelle relaxed again.

"So you're not actively suicidal, you've just got intrusive thoughts. That's… well, it's not fun, but it's not as dangerous. They're kind of like weeds in a garden. Those thoughts might be there, but you sure as shit didn't put them in."

"I just feel like Obi-Wan would be disappointed in me. If he knew."

"Obi-Wan's raised you since you were nine. He looked at all the grief and trauma of seeing his master murdered in front of him, being the first person to kill a Sith in over a thousand years, and probably suspecting that he had just put a target on his head for whichever Sith still lived… and decided his first priority was you."

"Because Qui-Gon told him to see me trained."

"So? He could have pressured the Council, he could have called in favours, there was a million other choices he could have made apart from raise you himself. But he chose that path, and he stuck on it. When we first became friends, he gave me a shovel talk about horrible consequences if I hurt you. He's downright rabid about keeping you safe. Anakin, I honestly don't think there's a single thing you could possibly do to stop that man from loving you. You turn into a Sith and literally stab babies, and I think some part of him would still love you. I mean, I get that he's reserved and all, so it's not easy to see from the inside but… if forced to choose between you and the galaxy, I think he'd have to think about it for a very long time. And I'm not totally sure which he would choose."

After Michelle's speech, Anakin went quiet for a while, mulling over her words, both looking out the window, and not at each other.

Finally, he spoke up.

"Michelle?"

"Yeah?"

"I think I'd like to do that crying now."

"I'm here, buddy."

* * *

The rest of the trip went by fast. They returned to Couruscant, and only the fact that Anakin and Michelle came out of the ship supporting Obi-Wan saved them from an immediate bitching out. Doc had gotten him stabilised, but the Halls of Healing immediately took him in for some necessary procedures. Although the healer that had done so - a Mon Calmari that Michelle was fairly certain was Bant – had taken the time to reassure them that he would probably make a full recovery, and they had done well to save him when they did.

Anakin had gone with Obi-Wan, to sit vigil outside his room while the healers worked. Michelle returned to their apartment, and quietly removed all traces of her stay, changing out Obi-Wan's sheets for good measure. Sure, she'd only slept in them once, but still. Basic manners.

And then she went home, and passed out in her own bed.

 _Finally_.

* * *

When she woke up, it was to a single message from Coltin.

 _CA: Thank you for bringing him home._

 _MK: He would have done the same for me._

* * *

Obi-Wan's recovery room was well lit, probably in a welcome contrast to the dark cell he had been kept in. Anakin was gone, probably cajoled off to get some food and rest, and any other visitors were also absent. But he was awake, sitting up in bed with a datapad in his hands. Hands which had a faint, yet noticeable tremor.

Probably the malnutrition. And trauma. He'd be fine.

"Hey. Feeling more lucid?" She asked, letting herself in and taking a chair. Obi-Wan put the datapad down, and smiled warmly.

"Feeling much better, thank you. …Anakin told me that you took over his training while I was presumed dead. Kept him out of trouble, I hope?"

"Apart from running off on an explicitly forbidden rescue mission? Yeah, I kept him in line."

"I can't thank you enough for what you've done. I worry about Anakin, and it's good to know that if something actually happens to me, there will still be people to watch out for him."

Michelle was fairly certain she turned red at that, which probably looked weird on her. The downsides to dyeing your hair bright red.

"Would have done it anytime. And besides, you're my friends. I'm looking out for both of you idiots, no matter what. Also, none of that depressing talk. You're going to live to see your fifties, or I'm going to kiss the Chancellor."

Obi-Wan let out a surprised laugh at that, shaking his head and wincing slightly as the laugh pulled at some injuries.

"Isn't that an unpleasant mental image. I thought you rather disliked the man?"

"Oh, like you don't."

"…I'm not committing to any stances on the matter out loud."

They spent a while talking and catching up, before Michelle's comlink received a message from the Council, politely demanding her presence. Probably for an ass kicking. At least her 'I told you so' speech was prepared. So they said their goodbyes, and Michelle headed out. Once again, looking forward to Obi-Wan knighting Anakin and getting his seat on the Council.

As she walked through the halls, Ketros decided to bring up her opinion on the matter.

' _Y'know, you were pretty good with Anakin, in the master-padawan sense. The Council's probably going to hear about it.'_ She pointed out, tone making it clear that she was going somewhere with it.

' _I guess, for the whole two weeks it lasted. What's your point with this?'_

' _Next thing you know, the Council's going to assign you padawan.'_

At this, Michelle wasn't able to contain a physical snort, drawing a few weird looks from passing Jedi that she easily brushed off.

' _Don't be ridiculous. Who would be stupid enough to trust me with an impressionable teenager?'_

* * *

"Oh, hey, update from the Council. Blah blah, routine stuff, blah blah- oh, that's nice, they're sending another Jedi to back me up, that'll be helpful. Wonder if it's anyone I know?" Michelle said out loud, closing the message and turning to Evie.

"Would be nice to have some backup. Is it just another General, or a full battalion?"

"All they said was 'Jedi inbound for assistance, will have further instructions for you on their arrival', whatever the fuck that means. Dunno who sent the message, but they're vague as all fuck. Let's just prepare for another General and see how it goes."

Evie sighed, and grabbed her helmet.

"Clearly, you've rubbed off on them." She deadpanned, before putting it on. "Let's just get back to work."

"Right, right, fuck you too. So, I was thinking we could send some of our guys out with sniper rifles, have them get around to the back of the Seppie base, climb up the trees, then we set off a distraction out front, make it big enough to try and lure the tactical droid running the show out in the open, see if we can just… assassinate the shit out of it. They're like chickens with their heads cut off once the boss goes down, it'll work great."

"Hm. You really think we can get the tactical droid out of the stronghold? I wouldn't bet on that. Better idea, in these forests, our biggest issue is their tanks. I think we have some of the heavy duty rounds, we send… five? Five of our sharpshooters out around the back like you said, have them destroy the tanks. Or, as many as possible anyways. As soon as the Seppies notice something is going on behind them, they get distracted, we charge their front. Thoughts?"

Michelle nodded.

"That's good, that's good. Maybe send them out with some grenades too, for when they get clankers coming uncomfortably close. Plus, big boom makes bigger distraction."

"Should help. I'll go assemble a team?" Evie suggested.

"I'll message the armoury, tell them to have the supplies ready."

And with that, Evie left the command center, and Michelle returned to the console, incoming Jedi already brushed aside in favour of bigger problems.

* * *

"Hey, General? The Jedi shuttle is landing in a minute." Heya announced, sticking his head in the commissary. Michelle looked at her dinner, barely touched, and then to the clones she was sitting with, Clip, Whiskey and Bug.

"I will bribe all of you not to tell Evie that I didn't finish this." She ordered, making a slightly threatening gesture with her fork.

"All I need is your potatoes, and I'm sold." Bug deadpanned, helping himself to them as he talked.

"Yeah, take 'em, I don't need them. Whiskey, I can get you the good shit?"

"...I don't drink, you know that."

"No, I meant chocolate. I'll get you some nice chocolate."

"Yeah, there's nothing I need to report to Evie today. Nothin' happened. Nothing at all. You're a healthy and rational adult who eats at least two meals a day."

"Well, if you could apply for some of the fun explosives…" Clip suggested, already grinning. Michelle shrugged.

"No, no, they don't take those requests from me anymore, they know what I'm like. How about we get some fireworks and see if we can get a droid to say 'what the fuck'?"

"I'm in!"

"Sweet!"

And with all her bargains made, Michelle grabbed her still mostly-full tray and slam-dunked it into the garbage, leaving the commissary with a wave over her shoulder.

She made her way out of the building, walking out onto the landing platform just as the shuttle was touching down. So, not a battalion, just one Jedi. Michelle leaned against the wall, doing her best to silently project 'fuck you I'm in charge here'. It didn't matter if Yoda himself showed up, Michelle was not handing her troops over to someone else.

The landing ramp extended, and to her surprise, a teenager girl walked out, alone. Her clothing was fairly battlefield appropriate, but the tunic and pants were careful to cover almost all of her skin, only her face and hands exposed. A hijab covered her head, a padawan braid of silka beads hanging off it. Something about her looked… familiar.

Oh. The padawan from the hangar, after Geonosis. The one that Coltin had comforted.

Ohhh no.

' _Is this going where I think it is?'_ Ketros asked, obvious glee in her voice. Michelle did not share this feeling.

The padawan caught sight of Michelle, and walked over to her.

"Master Ketros? I'm Ozerra Abdalla, I was sent by the Council. They've… um, assigned me to be your padawan."

Ketros burst out laughing.

At least one of them was enjoying the situation.

* * *

 **AN: Hey, so remember when I said that Ozerra's role would start with 'Coltin's' and end with 'Padawan'? Well, congratulations to everyone who puzzled out that super simple riddle, the answer was 'Coltin's grand-padawan' all along!**

 **Also, just for the record to stall any questions, no, Michelle doesn't have an eating disorder. She's just got her own health and safety pretty low on the mental priorities, which tends to work out in ways like her forgetting to eat until she's too hungry to function, because why would she stop to eat a meal, there's a thousand things that need doing and she should do them.**

 **That's what happens when you spend so long tangled up in a one man shadow was against the Sith. You forget how to delegate. Luckily she's got Evie. And now Ozerra!**

 **And speaking of, there's our main cast of OC's. Michelle, Evie and Ozerra have the spotlight for the rest of the Clone Wars, along with Anakin and Obi-Wan. Well, part of it anyways. Seha's off fighting mostly, Zinnia's got her own work, but still has some bits, and Neria's busy at the Republic shipyards, working on Star Destroyer designs. No combat for her. Coltin gets to be a main character again eventually, but not for a while. Everything from now on is just camoes for him, his name doesn't get in the outline at all next part. Ripironi.**

 **Oh my god, part 3. We did it. This is the first part I've felt really good about ending, and not just a 'oh my god I under shot this make it end'. Let's hope it lasts!**

 **Dunno when interlude 3 goes up, but it'll be soon-ish. I've got plans for that one, and it'll be a nice, light hearted break from the suffering that we're going to see soon. Cause there's going to be a lot of it.**

 **So… what do we really say here? Thanks for sticking around, even with the unexpected break. I may do this work cause I want to, but you guys are what really keeps me going. Song for this part was Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Lorde, and honestly I had a lot of fun doing this one. It was kinda the transition from Michelle's adolescence to her adulthood, and I feel like she's hit that point. Emotional maturity in Isaac's memory.**

 **Rip Isaac taken too soon. By me. Be at peace with the Force.**

 **Hope everyone likes Ahsoka, cause she comes in next part. Our favourite orange space lesbian will truly save us all.**

 **So… not much else to say here except… see you in late May for the interlude, and see you in June for part 4! Making good time!**


	38. Interlude: Walls Come Tumbling Down

**AN: Haha this was done later than I wanted because I got sick AGAIN. I don't know why but I never get sick in the fall and winter like normal human beings, but the second spring and summer hits it's time for death. One time I got sick enough to be bedridden for a week literally the day after school ended. Everything is horrible and I don't want any comments over this being late, is the point that I am making.**

 **So this interlude is less 'OC backstory', and more 'missing episode' style. I guess. Basically, this is a chapter that didn't fit into the story anywhere, so it gets its own interlude. Because we need some fun before this all goes to shit. Hint, it's all going to shit very soon.**

 **Alternate title: Michelle Finally Manages To Do Teenager Activities Without Life Or Death Drama, Coltin Is A Lightweight, And Michelle Discovers That This Drinking Thing Isn't Actually So Bad Go Figure**

 **Note: Michelle is 18 in this, so all age-restricted shenanigans are completely legal. Including the drinking, because she's never even been to America and their weird drinking laws don't apply to her.**

 **Since this takes place before Part 3, Michelle obviously does not have her Clone Wars design. Instead she's a bit further back in her senior padawan stage, pictures on my blog. NOT THE USUAL INFO, it is now also Gay-Jesus-Probably. Because I'm not really into Steven Universe anymore, and I just like this name. Hashtag's still the same though. Honestly, I love her design for this part, and I kind of wish I used it more. There's also a new character named Phoenix, who's pretty much just for this part, but still has a design, and is also on my blog.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Interlude 3: Walls Come Tumbling Down

Firmly in the middle rim, Alos was a small, unremarkable planet. The customs of its people didn't reach any notable extremes, and it certainly wasn't making its revenue off any large amount of tourim. Never the less, two Jedi were present on its surface

Well, some would debate that fact, due to one of the Jedi being only a padawan there with her master. Some would argue that she is still one hell of a Jedi, and should be referred to as such. Most would want the goddamn story to keep moving. So, for compromises sake, one and a half Jedi were on the planet.

For centuries, the neighboring planet of Ianor had ruled over Alos. But after a few years of uprisings and increased calls for independence, Alos had gotten its demand, and become its own sovereign planet. The first action of its new congress was to join the Republic.

Thus the reason for the two Jedi. Specifically, Coltin Andross and his padawan, Michelle Ketros.

The two had been on the planet all week, originally to ensure a peaceful transition into the new democracy, and now remained in compliance with local customs. Specifically the local custom that they stay for the mandatory four day party that was now raging.

If anybody ask, they had agreed to avoid potentially destabilizing the fragile system. It was absolutely not just a convenient excuse to unwind. That would be ridiculous.

The locals tendency to party had influenced its congress as well, and the declaration of official independence had been met with toasts. Many, many toasts. Which both Jedi had to participate in, because. Tradition.

Michelle had done her best to down the shots like someone who had absolutely done the alcohol before. Her sputtering had been very subtle and dignified. And Coltin had only laughed at her three times.

Well, she was getting her revenge. Because as it turned out, Coltin was a fucking lightweight.

In terms of alcohol anyways. In terms of actual weight, he was very fucking heavy. Which Michelle was learning, because she was dragging his plastered ass back to their shared suite.

And seriously, why had he passed out? Michelle had downed the exact same amount of shots as him, and she didn't feel any different. Completely ridiculous is what that was.

Well, that or Michelle had secretly been the god of drinking.

* * *

About an hour later, Michelle was beginning to suspect she was secretly the god of drinking.

She had abandoned Coltin on the couch of their suite to sleep it off, and after a moment of waffling, decided to do the standard teenager thing. Namely, go out and join the massive street party.

The streets were packed, with lights flashing and music blaring. Overhead, a steady stream of fireworks lit up the sky, a constant percussive boom sounding off from above. Food and liquor were being freely passed around, and the atmosphere screamed chaos.

Michelle liked some chaos now and then.

The Living Force was strong, and the effect of being submersed in so much of it was almost enough to get Michelle intoxicated all on its own. Which was good, because alcohol sure as shit didn't seem to be doing the job, despite her getting pulled into, and promptly winning several drinking contests.

She probably shouldn't be standing after how much she had been drinking. She probably shouldn't even be _alive_. Maybe her weird hybrid biology was being good for something?

Sometime around three in the morning, Michelle found herself on the outskirts of the town, near the edge of the party. She chose to stop for a moment, ducking into an alleyway to lean against a wall. Tipping her head back against the cool bricks, she closed her eyes, and took a deep breath, trying to get her bearings in the Force.

' _So, this drinking thing's not so bad after all, is it? Cause on my end, you're still in top condition.'_ Ketros said, sounding bemused.

' _I'm having more fun than I expected. And the credits I made off drinking those guys under tables doesn't hurt either.'_ Michelle replied, grinning slightly. Ketros laughed in appreciation, before a sudden warning of danger came through the Force.

She opened her eyes, to find that she was surrounded by at least a dozen men, all armed with blasters. Pointed at her.

Oh dear.

"…Can I help you gentlemen?" Michelle asked cautiously, mentally judging that no, she could not defend against that many shots at that short of a range.

"Yeah, actually. You're one of them Jedi, aren't you? Just give us that sword thing you got, and we won't shoot. Got it?"

She stared for a moment, before giving a resigned shrug, and tossing it over to the leader.

"Sure, whatever. Pro tip, don't point it at yourself, and keep a very careful awareness of all parts when activating. That thing can and will cut your dick off. And it'll probably take your legs in the process. So, can I go now?"

The gang muttered amongst themselves for a moment. Michelle casually picked a bit of confetti out of her hair.

"That was too easy, what're you hiding!?" The leader demanded, gesturing angrily at Michelle with her own lightsaber hilt.

"Nah man, no tricks. S'all good bro."

"Hey! The fucking hell's going on here!?" An unfamiliar female voice yelled. All dozen members of the gang turned their attention to the mouth of the alley, where the woman had yelled from. Michelle took that as her opportunity, and jumped the guy closest to her.

The ensuing brawl was short and violent. By the time it was over, Michelle's lip was split, six men were lying unconscious in the alley, three were groaning and holding various areas of the physiology, and the woman who had interrupted was inspecting her bloody knuckles with a small frown. Unfortunately, the leader had made off with Michelle saber in the chaos.

"So um. I'm Michelle. Thanks for the backup there, I guess." She said awkwardly.

"All cool man, just doing my good deed for the day. I'm Phoenix. So, you got kinda fucked up just now. My place is pretty close, I could take you back and patch you up? Er, if you're cool with it, that is. Not trying to make you uncomfortable or anything."

"Sure, yeah, sound good. Your place for medical attention."

"Fuckin' sweet."

And with that, Phoenix grabbed Michelle by the hand, and helped her to her feet, the two heading out of the alley and towards Phoenix's place.

Phoenix seemed to live up to her name, in that she appeared very firey. She was dressed mainly in red and black, with a bright red tube top, a black miniskirt, and red, slightly translucent tights with a diamond pattern cut out of them. Her hair was a dark, almost bloody red, and was shaved off on one side, the other hanging down slightly past her chin. In contrast to her skimpy outfit, she also wore black combat boots, and a dark brown leather jacket. Her skin and eyes were dark brown, and her lipstick was black.

Needless to say, Michelle found her extremely pretty. In a 'she punched me in the face once it was awesome' kind of way. She certainly seemed the type to take no shit and no prisoners.

Phoenix's apartment was small, and cramped. It seemed cozy, but clearly wasn't the best apartment to begin with, and wasn't owned by someone who was expecting a lot of guests. Michelle could respect that.

After about a minute of Phoenix cleaning Michelle's scrapes, and slapping bandages on, she spoke up.

"So… you're a Jedi, right?" She asked, in the tone of someone who pretty much already knew, but was just making sure.

"Yup. Hence those guys stealing my lightsaber." Michelle deadpanned, grinning a bit. Phoenix snorted.

"I figured, yeah. I know those guys, they're the fucking worse. One of 'em hired me for an hour once, easily the worst hour of my life. He had no idea what he was doing, and seemed fairly convinced he was the god of sex. Asshole tried to stiff me on the way out too, can you believe that? Why are gangs always so fucking terrible?"

"…Wait, so you're a-"

"Prostitute, yeah. Convenient though, means I'm mostly off the record, and I've got plenty of time to run around doing Independent Alos work. …Not sure what I'll do now that we've actually _got_ our freedom though. Maybe go back to school? That'd be nice."

"Oh, cool! You were part of the revolution?"

"Hell yeah. Mostly running things between groups, since I had good reason to be moving around on the streets late at night. Anyways, I'm getting distracted. What I meant to say is, don't Jedi have some fuckin'… no attachment rule?" Phoenix asked, giving Michelle a curious look. She shrugged in response.

"I mean… technically? Pretty much all of us break it though, we're just expected to stay quiet about things. And attachments count as like, full blown relationships. We're expected to be aromantic, not celibate or anything."

"Oh, that's good. So, you're pretty, and badass, and pretty badass, and I kind of have a thing for girls with six packs. Wanna get horizontal and do something about that?" The red head asked, giving Michelle a grin. The teenager blushed.

"Um- I mean- I don't have any money, or-"

"Free of charge. Wait- um, how old are you?"

"…Eighteen, why?"

"Oh, thank god, I'm twenty, I almost got scared there. Whew. So seriously, you in? If you're not comfortable, you don't have to, I'm all about consent."

"I- yes. I do want to, I'm just- awkward. And haven't done a lot of this."

"Aww, hon. Don't worry, I'll show you everything."

* * *

Late the next morning, Michelle staggered into her and Coltin's suite. Her hair and clothes were mussed up, and she was wearing a hoodie that wasn't hers. She had the distinct smell of sweat, blood and alcohol on her, as well as a faint hint of someone's perfume, sharp and spicy.

"Padawan? Where the hell have you been?" Coltin asked, looking extremely hungover.

"Y'know. Places. Definitely not getting my lightsaber stolen, because that would be ridiculous."

"Padawan…"

"Okay, so I got mugged by like, a dozen guys, then I fought them, and the guy with the lightsaber got away, and this other girl bailed me out in the fight and helped patch me up after. Happy?"

"Always. Padawan, you really shouldn't be so irresponsible."

"Well sorry for getting fucking mugged. Can I go get my lightsaber back or not?"

"You want to take on around a dozen gangsters, while completely unarmed, in a dangerous unfamiliar city."

"…Yeah, pretty much."

"When the council asks us about this mission-"

"This never happened?"

"Exactly."

Coltin continued nursing a cup of coffee on the couch, while Michelle fixed her own mug and joined him. The two sat in comfortable silence for a while, before Coltin got a confused, thoughtful expression on his face, and looked over at Michelle.

"Michelle? What were we drinking last night?" He asked, in the tone of somebody that probably didn't want to know but was asking anyways.

"Their national liquor, something they call vodquila. Pretty strong stuff."

"…Oh Force, no wonder I was so drunk."

"I dunno, maybe you're just a lightweight, I'm barely even tipsy."

"…Wait, you're still drunk?"

"Correction. Still drinking. Spiked my coffee with more vodquila, this stuff's awesome."

"How. How even."

"Damned if I know. But either way, I clearly have the constitution of the gods. I won like, five drinking games in a row, it was awesome. I will use this power for general hell raising."

"Michelle."

"Off the record, naturally."

" _Michelle no."_

" _Michelle yes."_

* * *

The benefit of a planet whose culture heavily revolved around wild partying was that when a celebration was on, very few people bothered to get up before noon. Most didn't even get out of bed until well past that. Meaning that Michelle and Coltin weren't set to return to the congress until five in the afternoon.

Michelle had used the day for the great purpose of showering, and then sleeping. This made sense, considering that the most she'd gotten during the night was some light dozing on Phoenix's bed after they were done.

And yeah. That had been fun. So much fun.

Michelle hoped she saw her again. The older girl was smart, considering that pillow talk had somehow turned into discussing the politics, and Phoenix had easily kept up. Obviously, considering she was involved in a goddamn rebellion. Having strong political opinions was sort of a necessity in that line of work. She also had a wicked sense of humour, one Michelle shared, a stunning smile, and an almost ungodly talented tongue.

' _Is that really on your list of reasons to like her? Really?'_ Ketros complained, sounding mildly scandalized as they made their way towards the parliament building.

' _I mean… it's just one feature, but I won't deny it's up there. I mean, Zi- last time was great and all, but she was… well, obviously kind of an amateur, and so was I. Phoenix had experience. And I am more than happy to learn from her.'_ Michelle replied, some amount of smugness seeping through despite her attempt to cover it.

Ketros's offended cry at that was completely worth it.

"Hey Michelle!"

Hearing her name called, Michelle looked over into the crowd, and perked up at the sight of the scantily clad girl shoving her way through the crowd towards her.

"Hey, Phoenix! Coltin, this is the girl that helped me in the fight I got into last night. Phoenix, this is my master. He's a lightweight but I put up with him anyways."

"Nice to meet you. So hey, those guys totally stole your lightsaber last night, right?"

"Yeah, I was gonna try and go after them later tonight. Look around, see if I can find them. Why?"

"Want some help? I already know where they're based, and like I told you, I have to deal with them sometimes. They're assholes. I'm always down to stick it to them. …Also, this is not the stupidest thing I've ever done for a pretty girl." Phoenix said, giving a slightly embarrassed shrug.

"Actually, yeah, that would be great!" Michelle replied, perking up with a smile.

"You girls have fun. Don't get murdered Padawan. Also, I heard absolutely none of this." Coltin interjected, patting Michelle on the shoulder. She turned to give the older Jedi a confused look.

"Wait, what about the mission stuff-"

"You're sleeping off a hangover at the suite right now. I mean, you are still a teenager, and last night was your first time drinking. There were an awful lot of mandatory vodquila shots."

Michelle blinked, before grinning.

"Thanks Coltin, you're the best!"

And with that, Michelle grabbed Phoenix's hand, and took off into the crowd.

* * *

"This may not be the greatest plan I've ever heard of. It seems like there's a lot of inherent flaws in the system." Phoenix said, sounding slightly worried.

"Hush, I know what I'm up to. Now hand me the club."

"Oh my god." Phoenix muttered. Although she did still hand Michelle the blunt weapon, so that was a victory in her book.

"Now get out there, I'm getting my damn lightsaber back." Michelle said cheerfully, patting Phoenix on the back. With a sigh, the woman adjusted her skirt, checked her makeup in the mirror, and headed out.

Now alone in the hotel room, Michelle took a seat in a chair, crossed her legs, took a deep breath, and sank into the Force.

And then she waited.

She had the _best_ plan.

* * *

"Could have just gone for a normal girl. Found someone nice, pretty and _normal_. But noo, I just had to go for a goddamn Jedi, God forbid I get a single moment of peace in my life, you done with resistance work? Go bang a goddamn Jedi, get that chaos back in your life, easy." Phoenix muttered to herself, walking down the street with a scowl. Considering this was her third loop around the block, this was a little justified.

Rounding the corner for the fourth time, she noticed a man outside the doors, and plastered a sultry grin on her face with easy experience, and putting a sway in her hips as she approached.

"Hey, lookin' for some company tonight?" She called, leaning on the wall beside the man, his jacket identifying him as a member of the gang Michelle had sent her after. That crazy beautiful woman.

"Depends. What's your rates?" He asked, blatantly checking her out.

"Normally, 500 credits an hour, but with jaw structure like yours I'll make it 250."

He noticeably grinned in interest, and she was careful to keep the grin on her face, and to not roll her eyes. Honestly, men were so easy to manipulate sometimes.

"Works for me. Your place or mine?"

"Mine, I've got a hotel room already. Er, money up front, if you don't mind? I've had some issues with gang members not paying up, you understand…"

She might have been baiting the man for the benefit of the pretty Jedi girl who had stolen her heart, but that didn't mean she couldn't pick up some cash for herself on the side.

Everyone needs to eat after all.

* * *

The door to the hotel room opened, and Michelle snapped out of her meditation.

She'd sensed Phoenix coming, of course, along with their target, but being able to see them helped. And it would make it easier for her swing the club _just_ right into the guys head. Hard enough to put him down, and not hard enough to kill him.

This was something she had a mildly concerning amount of experience with.

Phoenix and their mark staggered on in, hands all over each other. One blow was enough to make the guy faint dead, hitting the floor like a rock.

"Nice swing. Remind me not to piss you off." Phoenix commented, eyebrows raised.

"Right? Okay, let's get to work, we've only got so long before this douche is missed. Let's get his clothes." Michelle said, with an expression of grim determination.

What followed was some quick and professional stripping. And there were only a few fumbles, which were impressive, considering that Phoenix only had experience with a more performative form of stripping, and Michelle had absolutely no experience with stripping.

Once they had him down to his underwear, both girls paused, exchanging looks.

"So… should we take the boxers too…?" Phoenix asked, a look of mild disgust on her face.

"Y'know what, if anybody investigates that, we're already blown. Let's do this."

Michelle frowned in concentration, mentally willing herself to change, letting out quiet hisses of pain as her bones re-arranged to mimic the mans.

The half alien thing was still weird as shit, but it was definitely useful for getting into places.

Once she was done changing, Michelle quickly stripped out of her now ill-fitting tunics, and put on the man's stolen clothing. Her hair tripped her up for a moment, before she managed to get it all hidden under a hat. All in all, it took about ten minutes for her to become an entirely different person.

"Okay, that's a little creepy." Phoenix commented, eyes wide.

"Hey, I do my best." Michelle said, pulling a slight face at her deepened voice.

Doing a complete shapeshift usually left her aching the next day, but it was convenient as hell for getting into places. Especially unarmed. Because she was trying to retrieve her lightsaber. That she lost like an _idiot._ Because she was _an idiot_.

But self loathing wasn't getting her lightsaber back. Besides, she could only hold a form for so long. Time to go.

"If I'm not back in an hour-"

"Make a really flash distraction, preferably in a way that's stupider than this. Gotcha."

Michelle blinked.

"…How did you know that was what I was going to say?"

"I was with Independent Alos, I've got a pretty firm grip on the concept of tactics. That or I'm secretly god, take your pick."

"…Fair enough." Michelle conceded, before heading out the door.

Time to break the fuck into a gang building.

* * *

The entire thing had seemed a lot more dramatic in her head, but as it turned out, walking into a building while in the shape of someone who belonged in there didn't have a lot of excitement. It was like walking into a building that she was supposed to be in.

Terrifying. Truly, she was the master of dramatic tension.

Well, okay, it was a little stressful, but her daily life on Coruscaunt was stressful enough that missions barely even registered as stressful most of the time. They were like vacations from her life. Her life of knowingly living about half an hour away from a literal Sith Lord who knew that she knew, and was probably trying to figure out how to kill her.

That was a detail Michelle tried not to think about. If you got stressed out enough over things you couldn't change, then you ended up having an internal breakdown that you're too anxious to tell anyone about, and then you have a poorly timed meltdown one day, yell at your Master for asking you to empty the dishwasher, then immediately break down into incomprehensible tears for an hour straight while he panicked trying to help you.

…Is a thing Michelle had heard happened to someone else. And definitely not her. Because that would be embarrassing.

So for completely unrelated reasons she did her best ignore Palpatine's continued presence in her life. The online therapy had suggest finding a safe outlet to vent her frustrations. She was considering starting a hobby as a crackpot political journalist, once she was done with her political science degree.

All of which was completely unrelated to her immediate goal of getting her fucking lightsaber back.

Through the Force, she could feel it up on the third floor. Probably sitting on the boss's desk. Like some kind of trophy.

What an asshole.

She made her way up to the third floor, completely unchallenged, and into the office in question. Which was empty. Not even locked.

Oh Force, she had been beaten by a bunch of _idiots_. Good thing this was staying off the mission report.

Grabbing her lightsaber, she thought about walking back out. But then again, holding a form for that long would hurt more tomorrow, and disguise or no, being caught walking out with a lightsaber would arouse suspicion.

Yeah.

Fuck it.

She locked the door to the office, and let herself go back to her natural shape, sighing in relief as her bones settled back into their normal places.

And then, like the amazing badass that she definitely was, she used a carefully aimed Force push to shatter the window, and jumped out of it. Three stories was nothing to a Jedi after all.

One neat landing later, and she was running down the street, heading straight back to the questionable motel her and Phoenix had used to lure and rob their target.

And she had thought it was a bad plan.

* * *

"Okay, fine, I reluctantly admit that your plan went well."

"If by well you mean perfect, then okay."

"I wouldn't go that far. In my opinion, any plan that ends with fast walking away from a motel room with a half naked guy inside is a bad plan." Phoenix pointed out, picking up her pace slightly in emphasis.

"It's not that bad. We put his pants back!" Michelle said, catching up with the other girl.

"Yeah, just cause we're decent people. Otherwise he'd wake up naked and alone in a motel bed with a headache, and that's usually the sort of thing that traumatizes people."

"Instead now he's waking up shirtless and alone in a motel bed with a headache. And mysteriously missing wallet."

"…Hey, you stole his identity, me taking his wallet isn't any worse. I've got bills to pay. And I'm saving up to go to university. _So there_."

"Oh, I'm in university right now. I mean, obviously it's a bit different, because Jedi. I'm taking a political science degree at T'hay Ely'a University on Coruscaunt, it's been going well."

"Oh, yeah I've looked at that one! I like their scholarship programs, it seems a lot more generous than the stuff at the University of Coruscaunt. I mean, I've been looking at like 20 different schools, but that ones up there. There's a university on Alos, but it's a piece of shit, Coruscaunt's the place for a good political degree. Still, lot to work out, with the scholarship's I'll need, and trying to get a dorm or rent a place, and a job… it's this whole fucking thing. I am a very stressed person." Phoenix said, giving a bit of a tired smile. "This whole thing we've been doing? With the running around and robbing gangs and screwing? It's been kind of relaxing. …In a batshit insane kind of way."

"Yeah, I get you. I'm stressed like, all of the time. Got a lot of stuff on my plate. Could probably help with your issues though. I'd have to check, but I might be able to help get you a job and place to stay and all. My like… actual mother owns a bar, she might be willing to hire you. And for scholarship applications, you could probably tap me for a reference letter. Nothing says 'give me money' like a Jedi reference letter."

Phoenix half stumbled on a crack in the pavement, staring at Michelle in surprise.

"That… would literally fix like, all of my problems. Most of them. The point is, I would love you forever for that. Or whatever the acceptable Jedi method of affection is. Hang on, let me give you my comm code before I forget, even if the job and home thing falls through I still want that reference letter. How many people get Jedi sources? Not a lot I'm guessing but this bitch will. So! We're walking back to my apartment, so I'm guessing that's where we're going. Do you wanna have sex, or do you want to just like, hang out on the floor and watch a movie or something? I've got some really terrible ones downloaded, and it's always fun to tear them apart with someone else."

Michelle perked up.

"I love making fun of terrible movies. Let's go!"

* * *

"You checked the suite to make sure you didn't forget any of your things?" Coltin asked, looking over at Michelle as they were drove to the starport.

"Yes _dad_ , I checked under the bed and everything."

"Because if you lost your lightsaber again now, I'd laugh at you the entire flight home."

"Lightsabers on my belt, pants are on my legs. That's every important item I own."

Coltin laughed at that, and they lapsed into a comfortable silence. It lasted until they got onto their ship, and had gotten into hyperspace, heading back for the Temple.

Finally, Michelle broke the quiet.

"Hey, so Master? When we get back to Coruscaunt… can I visit my mother?"

Coltin turned in his chair, staring at Michelle with surprise and concern.

"…Not sure. You had a visit just last year, it might raise some eyebrows if you went again so soon. I mean, maybe not officially, but you can probably get away with just going on your own. I won't say anything. …Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, everything's fine, I just need to talk to her. Y'know the red haired girl I was hanging out with? The one that helped me get my lightsaber back? Well, we were talking, and she's planning on going to university on Coruscaunt, but she needs help with like a job and a place to stay, so I figured the least I could do in exchange is try to help her get a job. When I went to visit last year, mom said that she's been having a hard time finding someone reliable to man the bar, so… yeah. And Phoenix is trustworthy, and a good person, and she lives alone in the apartment, and there's still an empty bedroom that was supposed to be mine… so yeah. I might be eighteen years behind, but I figure it's never too late to start doing the whole concerned daughter of an empty nester thing. And I though that's something that should be brought up in person. It's a win for everyone. Mom gets a good employee and company, Phoenix has a job and a place to stay for university, and I don't need to worry about friends and family. Win win win."

Coltin smiled, and ruffled her hair, earning a yelp of protests from the teenager.

"Sounds good to me, kid."

"Stop calling me kid, I'm eighteen!"

"And yet, you're still my padawan. Kid."

Michelle replied to that with a grumbling sound that, while incoherent, wasn't completely lacking in affection.

Another successful mission for the Andross-Ketros team.

* * *

 **AN: So, for all curious, yes, Phoenix does get the job as a bartender and move in with Kyla Ketros, and go to university. Will we see her again? Maybe. Either way, if Phoenix was the protagonist, this would be the part where she moves onto the epilogue. Victory. She'll get a fuckton of political degrees, and, provided the Republic's still there when she graduates, become the senator for Alos.**

 **In the canon verse, Phoenix would still be working to save up the money for university and trying to get scholarships when the Clone Wars broke out, and a Seperatist occupation of Alos would change her priorities something hardcore. Once a freedom fighter, always a freedom fighter. Except this time around, she'd be old enough and pissed enough that she'd rustle up everyone she could find from the good old Independent Alos days, recruit some more, and accidentally become the leader of a full scale resistance. So naturally when the Empire took over, she'd take one look, say fuck that and start rebelling against Imperial occupation, eventually hooking up with the main scale rebellion. As for how that ends for her… That's actually a subject to be covered in Division. Yeah, remember that thing? Phoenix is in there. Or rather, Phoenix is discussed in there, her daughter is the only one to make an appearance. Yeah, she ends up having one of those. Well, not in this timeline anymore, but in that one, she has a daughter at one point, and that woman is awesome. Not revealing names yet, since the events of this Interlude would actually (roughly) go down in the canon/pre-Division verse, and the story of 'That One Time My Mom Had A Thing With A Jedi' actually contains one hell of a plot reveal, so I'm not giving any hints in advance for that one.**

 **And yeah, in the Division verse Ketros does not help Phoenix go to university. Because Ketros never got interested enough in a field to go for an official degree in it, so university wasn't a subject of conversation that came up between them. Also, raised Jedi means that financial struggles are not a thing she can notice immediately. Michelle's a millennial. She figured out that she was going to be financially fucked when she was like eleven.**

 **Space Capitalism. It'll fuck you up.**

 **I'm not sure how we got to that sentence, I'm still sick and it's made me a bit loopy. I slept twelve hours last night, I've been awake for about five hours, and I think I need a nap already. I am exhausted. Someone come mercy kill me. First one there gets to read the Displacement outline and laugh at all the notes I've left myself in it. Seriously at one point I've specifically written out an exact insult for someone to use because it's just that funny to me. I have described one of Michelle's life or death plans in part 7 as 'because fucking yolo'. It's not a serious outline.**

 **I'm going to bed before this gets weirder.**

 **Part four coming whenever I stop dying. I'm going to optimistically say either the 6** **th** **or the 9** **th** **, so we'll see how that works out.**

 **Thanks for reading! If I do die of this plague, everyone who reviews is invited to my sick ass Viking funeral!**


	39. Part 4, Chapter 1: Careful Making Wishes

**AN: HAHA IM SO GLAD WE'RE BACK IN JUNE, EXACTLY WHEN I PROMISED. HAHA. HA.**

 **Look my dudes I got busy, and I got a job, and I've been working on some fics in other fandoms, and then there was holiday stuff, and lifes been happening a lot. I meant to post this sooner too, but doc manager FUCKED ME AND REFUSED TO ACCEPT IT. So it's been eight months. …Sorry.**

 **Also, fair warning, for anyone who reads my other stuff, it's probably going to be an ocean of Kingdom Hearts, because I got a PS4 and every single re-mastered Kingdom Hearts game as a gift, so I'm going to be very immersed in the series for quite some time. You'll still have your bi-weekly Displacement, don't worry.**

 **Anyways. Part four! Clone wars! Ozerra! AHSOKA! OH MY GOD AHSOKA IS HERE but not until in chapter 3 BUT SHE'S HERE! SHE'S HERE! She's not actually here yet give her a bit.**

 **Anyways, who's ready to actually meet Ozerra? Because I sure am. She's the cutest little shit ever. And I'm afraid we don't actually get a design for her because I can't draw and character creators never have hijab options. I blame white people.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Part 4, Chapter 1: Careful Making Wishes

Michelle sighed, and leaned back in her seat. Checked the time. Looked back at the holofeed.

Rolled her eyes again.

It didn't change anything.

Anakin was still laughing.

"Look, it's not that funny." She started, before being cut off.

" _It is absolutely that funny. Haha, you got saddled with a Padawan. Whose idea was that? You're going to ruin that poor child."_

"Man, shut up, like you'd do any better with a Padawan." Michelle said, giving her best sulk. For what it was worth, she was actually fairly certain she'd be a better Master to Ozerra than Anakin had been to Ahsoka. The kid was amazing and all, but Anakin's teaching techniques left a lot to be desired.

" _Not something I need to worry about. Nobody's going to be stupid enough to give a Padawan to a man that was knighted literally a few weeks ago."_ Anakin said, drawing a snicker out of Michelle.

"Sure they're not. We are talking about the same Council here, right? Although they do have Obi-Wan on it now, so that's some extra brainpower… still, I wouldn't rely on them for any amount of intelligence. Like, ever. Obi-Wan's super overruled."

" _Yeah, yeah, I'm still not getting a Padawan. So how's your campaign going?"_

"It's going, it's going. Well, actually, I kinda need to cut this short to get back to that in a minute. You just finished one, right?"

" _Yeah, I liberated the fuck out of Hotal. They're shipping me and Obi-Wan off to Christophis next, should be fun."_

Michelle blinked. What were the fucking odds.

"Hey. Fifty credits says you have a Padawan before the end of that campaign."

" _Easy money, you're on."_

"Alright, I really need to go fuck up some Separatists now. See you later."

" _Explode a few for me, would you?"_

"Can do!"

And with that, Michelle ended the call, and snickered.

' _That was probably immoral on some level. You already know he gets a padawan there.'_ Ketros said, voice reprimanding.

' _Yeah, but consider this, easy fifty credits.'_

Ketros's annoyed sigh was enough to make Michelle snicker again.

She was the _best Jedi_.

Exiting the communication tent, Michelle was unsurprised to see Ozerra waiting for her, the teenager noticeably perking up at the sight of her master. Ozerra was many things, and distant was not one of them. Actually, Ozerra's behaviour was borderline clingy, but Michelle didn't have it in her to stop the poor kid. Especially considering that her file had proved Michelle's initial assumption was right, and she did lose her first Master on Geonosis.

Michelle hadn't asked her to talk about it, and Ozerra hadn't brought it up. Pandora's Box of Nope was staying firmly closed for now.

"Okay kids, gather 'round!" Michelle announced loudly, prompting Ozerra, Evie, and various clones to assemble. "The Seppie base here is a bit better defended than most, so we're actually going to have to put some thought into taking it down. Now, we know that they know that we're here, and they know who we are. So the Seppie Commander's probably analysing a file on Michelle Ketros and the 420th as we speak. Meaning our usual tactics are not going to work. We're going to have to get creative with this bitch."

"Is that code for bigger explosions?" Clip asked, helmet hiding his probably excited expression.

"Yes and no. So, the thing is, the Seperatists know aaall about me by now. I started out as a thorn in their side, and I think by now I've graduated into a regular cactus up their ass. So they'll be expecting my usual tactics, specifically 'kill them all and let the Force sort it out'. But jokes on them, that's actually an elaborately constructed ruse to hide my true capabilities, specifically as an actual tactician capable of thinking things through. And while they know about almost all of the high ranking members of the 420th… they don't know about our brand new commander."

Collectively, several heads turned to stare at Ozerra, who blinked in surprise.

"Me?"

"You. So! I'm going to do exactly what the droids expect, and lead the troops in an all out assault. While we're distracting them, Ozerra is going to sneak into their base, take out the tactical droid, and lock down the command center. From inside of it, you'll be able to turn their own defenses against them. Big explosions, angry Seperatists, general chaos. It'll be great! So, any questions?"

"Master, can I talk to you alone?" Ozerra asked, looking a few seconds away from freaking out.

Crap. That might throw a wrench in the plans. Always a human element.

"Huh? Yeah, sure, come on. Evie, get the main attack organized, I'll be a few minutes." Michelle called over her shoulder, before escorting her apprentice away for some privacy.

"So what's up?"

"I can't do it. Infiltrate the base, I mean. Can I just… I don't know, go with you? A head on attack could probably win anyways!"

Michelle frowned.

"…Maybe, but it would end with heavy casualties. Those troops are under our command, Padawan. Our responsibility is to save as many of them as possible. I'm not going to sacrifice them for one person's comfort. Tell me what the problem is." She said, voice somewhat scolding. That was a lesson she wanted to sink in very quickly.

It was a little disturbing how quickly most of the galaxy dehumanized the clones. It was considerably more disturbing when that came from the Jedi, considering that they literally commanded them.

Fucking Palpatine, putting her in this mess. God damn.

But right now, she had an apprentice to parent the hell out of.

"I just… I don't want to go onto the battlefield without you. Master Retlaw – Master died on Geonosis as soon as we got separate, and I don't know if I could have saved him, but I feel like I could have, and I don't want anything like that to happen to you. Please, Master Michelle, I can't leave you alone-"

Ozerra's increasingly frantic rant was cut off by Michelle placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Shh. It's alright. Calm down." She said softly, waiting as her padawan composed herself. And at the same time, Michelle was having her own internal struggle, over her first real challenge as a Master.

Honestly, she knew that she was probably supposed to caution Ozerra away from attachment , and warn her about her fear. That would be the Jedi way. But was it what this obviously traumatized teenager needed to hear?

No. Not in the slightest.

"Look. You've seen me fight plenty over the last few weeks. You know that I'm good, right? Really good. Combat specialist. I can take care of myself on a battlefield. Been doing it for a long time before you came along. One time I handled a Seppie attack wearing nothing but a towel. This is a routine op. Have a little faith in my abilities, Padawan. Now, we _are_ going to talk about this – extensively – as soon as this is done. But for now, we need a coping mechanism, some sort of stopgap to help you get through this. What do you think would help?"

Ozerra bit her lip, fidgeted for a moment, and sighed.

"I guess… if you could lower your shielding, that would help? I mean, I know our bond's not very strong yet, but I've never been able to feel you at all. And I know you're able to read me, so it's definitely mostly you having ridiculously strong shields. Um, what I'm trying to say is, I think I could get through it if I was able to feel that you were actually okay the whole time. …You know?"

Internally, Michelle winced. Always with her shielding.

She had in fact gotten multiple… not so much lectures, as strongly worded inquiries from other Jedi regarding her ridiculously overdone shielding. Most of it was from Coltin, who, apparently, could usually tell that she was alive and not much else. And that was only by merit of having an extremely strong master-padawan bond with her already. Nobody else could get a read on her, and several Jedi were happy to inform her that her shielding needed to calm the hell down.

Well, nobody could get a read on her but Palpatine. But he had only done it once, and briefly. And she had been sixteen. That was most of the reason for her now ridiculous shielding, as she was very interested in not handing all of her knowledge of the future over to a megalomaniac Sith Lord.

But in protecting herself from crazy Sith, she also turned out to deeply worry her already traumatized padawan.

Oops.

But it was the least she owed the poor kid.

So she put on a convincingly warm smile, and nodded.

"Alright, that's easy enough. Just give me a moment here…"

And she very carefully reduced her shielding, ensuring it was only lowered around the bond with Ozerra, still new and fragile.

Ketros stirred, and silently asked if she should lower her half the shielding as well, and Michelle waved her away. Better to keep that aspect of her hidden from her padawan, at least for now.

After all, she wanted the padawan focused on her mission. Learning that the ghost of a murdered alternate universe teenage version of Michelle was kicking around would be just a bit distracting.

Ozerra smiled as the shields lowered, a bit shy, but mostly sweet. God, she was such a good kid. If she died, Michelle would never forgive herself.

"Right. Better now?"

"Much better. I… I can do this."

"Excellent. Go work out your route, and get any supplies you think you'll need. I've got to go oversee preparations for our attack, but see me before you leave, okay?"

"Can do, Master."

And with that Ozerra headed back out into the main camp.

Michelle allowed herself a moment to get used to the feeling of having her shields lowered in any way. She felt… vulnerable. It was not an overly pleasant feeling.

But the war waited for no one, and her discomfort was irrelevant in the long term.

Back to work.

* * *

Evie had known General Ketros for a while. And in that time, she had come to one, clear decision.

The woman was fucking _weird_. Even by Jedi standards.

Over the course of working under her, Evie had started to compile a mental list of her talents. She could throw tanks with her mind, cut through a small army of battle droids (both clothed and while naked, as the Towel Incident proved), had a surprisingly comprehensive grasp on politics (if you could stop her from accusing Chancellor Palpatine of being responsible for all evils in the galaxy), was a brilliant strategist if she put her mind to it, legitimately cared for and made a point of interacting with her troops (which according to Evie's fellow commanders, was not as common as one would hope), and could go a solid four days without sleeping.

Although she got pretty bitchy around the 48 hour mark.

Those were all fairly positive traits about her. But there were also some considerably more annoying habits.

Like her refusal to talk about herself. And the way she liked to lead conversations away from topics she found uncomfortable. And how she kept so many goddamn secrets. Her goddamn secrets had secrets. Evie was fairly certain that on some level, all of the secret keeping wasn't even a matter of trust. It was probably just habit for the woman by now.

In fact, Evie knew that it was a long standing habit of hers. After the insane stunt the General pulled on Rellekka, she was unconscious for almost five days. Evie, General Kenobi, and the then-Commander Skywalker had done their best to hold bedside vigil for her, whenever the three weren't busy with post-op clean up. Doubly so for Evie, considering her General was out of commission. But most of the time at least one of them was with her, and if it wasn't one of those three, then there was someone from the 420th.

But usually, it had been Evie, General Kenobi, or General Skywalker. And often, some combination of them. So of course, they had ended up talking, usually over their mutual point of concern. Specifically Michelle.

And apparently, she was _always this bad_.

Most days she just hid it better.

Evie hadn't told Michelle, but at one point, it had just been her and General Kenobi sitting at her bedside, and the two had had a Talk. A serious one.

Because General Kenobi was very worried about Michelle Ketros.

She's hiding something, he'd said. Something big. And dangerous. And whatever it was, she wasn't particularly inclined to share her information.

General Kenobi had asked Evie to keep an eye on her General. To protect her.

The addendum of 'from herself, if necessary' had gone unspoken, but Evie had felt the words regardless.

She wasn't sure if she was doing a very good job.

Sure, she made sure the General ate, and slept, and did her best to remind her that she was a mortal being that could not fend death off through sheer stubbornness, but that was about the limits of what she could do before Michelle started putting walls up.

And that was extremely frustrating.

Oh, sure, she genuinely liked and respected the woman. Borderline admired her. Hell, after meeting her for the first time, Evie had gone straight to Doc, and practically begged her brother for some sort of hair growth enhancer. Fortunately, Doc had been so busy getting his new med bay under order, that he'd basically thrown a bottle at her, ordered her to look up instructions, and left her to her own devices without any questions.

She may have left Kamino with a standard soldiers crew cut, but she left Coruscaunt with her hair shoulder length.

…Which in hindsight, was probably a gender thing. Long hair was annoying as hell in reality. Evie was probably going back to the crew cut once she felt more confident in her femininity.

But the point was, Evie legitimately liked Michelle. But she was frustrating as hell.

Especially right now.

Today's battle was a routine op. Michelle and the 420th make a big shiny distraction, while the real attack fucks them over from behind. The real attack today being Commander Abdulla.

Evie wasn't sure what her opinion was on the kid yet. So far it was stalling at 'quiet, but nice enough'.

But for someone who knew she was just serving as a distraction, the General wasn't up to her usual standard today.

She seemed off somehow. Distracted and scattered. Even during the prep to march, after the Commander had left, she'd been weird. Twitchy and jumpy. And now during the battle, she was leaving openings. Not big ones, hard to notice if you didn't know her fighting style well, but there were openings.

And Evie didn't like it.

The General being distracted made Evie distracted, which made her brothers distracted, which could lead to a disaster. But the General had waved off all concerns before the battle as 'Jedi stuff, don't worry', and had refused to give a better explanation.

Really, Evie was not getting paid enough for this shit.

* * *

To Michelle's lack of surprise, the battle went of exactly according to plan.

Evie was a bit more hover-y than usual, but Michelle didn't really get that. It wasn't like she was being that much different than usual, just a bit distracted.

Well, it had been a bit annoying, but Michelle did appreciate it. It was kind of sweet to have someone worrying over her. Honesty, these days Evie was the person Michelle spent the most time with, and somewhere along the line she had ended up as one of Michelle's best friends. Ozerra was also starting to worm her way into Michelle's affection, but not quite as a friend, if that made any sense. More like a little sister.

A little sister who she was entirely responsible for teaching and taking care of.

A responsibility like that was honestly terrifying. Figures, really. She could handle the fate of the entire galaxy, but the idea of directly looking after one teenager terrified her. Life was strange.

But maybe it wasn't as hard as it seemed, considering Ozerra had come back from her part of the mission without a scratch on her.

Really, Michelle was just so _proud_. She had a good kid. She had the best kid.

The wrap up had been fairly simple, as far as the aftermath of a battle went. Soon enough, Michelle was done all of her responsibilities, and able to escape up to the flagship, and collapse into her bunk.

God she was tired. Always was, after a battle. Even if she hadn't done much, stamina didn't do much to help with mental and emotional exhaustion.

She was about to fall asleep, when sure enough, someone knocked on the door.

It took a moment to work up the motivation to drag herself back upright. The ship's gravity was a cold, hard, artificial bitch.

She caught a look at herself in the mirror, and raised an eyebrow at the state of her hair, which was almost hilariously tangled. Michelle considered running a brush through it before getting the door, and promptly decided against it. She was the General. She ran the place, if anyone had issues with her hair being a rats nest, then that was their problem.

Michelle opened the door, and was only somewhat surprised to see Ozerra there.

"Hey Ozerra. What's up?"

"Uh, Master? We were going to meditate. After the battle?"

Shit. They were, weren't they.

Fuck.

Michelle put a smile on her face, pushing through the exhaustion to do so.

"Right. Come on in, let's get started!"

She suppressed a yawn as she let her padawan into the room, and sat down on the floor against the bed, crossing her legs in a standard meditation lotus, instead of lying down like she really wanted to. Ozerra hesitated for a moment, before taking her own seat on the meditation cushion.

Guess Michelle's nap would have to wait.

* * *

 **AN:So… yeah! We're back, bitches!**

 **I'm so sorry this took so long, seriously. I had it ready on boxing day. Fucking boxing day. But doc manager fucked me, so instead I ended up buying a TV online, which actually worked out amazingly, and now here we are, like a month later than I meant to do this whoops.**

 **But yeah we're back to the regular schedule now, which (for those of you who joined in the last seven months), is every Tuesday.**

 **But wait, you say, the fuck man? It used to be Tuesday and Friday!**

 **Why yes little Timmy it did, but now the Friday update spot is filled with something else. Specifically, Division!**

 **Yeah remember that? It's starting, look for it this Friday cheers losers.**


	40. Part 4, Chapter 2: In the Dark

**AN: Hello! Did you miss not having a Friday update? If yes, then seriously, go check my profile because DIVISION HAS LANDED! Andy is here, and she's ready to fight the Empire. And there is some carry-over of the Displacement OC's, cause literally the first chapter has Neria bailing Andy out of a bad situation. Go read Division. It's gonna be wild. Go read it.**

 **But for now, enjoy some more Michelle and Ozerra! Who are working out the whole Master-Padawan thing, and not doing all that bad a job of it.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Part 4, Chapter 2: In The Dark

Meditating with someone else took effort.

It wasn't supposed to – for most Jedi, the feeling of another's mind contemplating the Force with them was soothing. A good way to strengthen any bond.

But for Michelle, meditating with someone else was extremely stressful, considering just how many secrets were in her mind. Let alone the risk of someone noticing Ketros's presence. That would end in many awkward questions.

Ketros and Michelle were pretty sure that anyone who got far enough into their mind would figure out there was two people in there. Might even be able to talk to Ketros.

It had taken some long talks between the two of them, before agreeing not to let that happen.

Because sure, Ketros might be able to talk to her loved ones again, but only ever through the medium of Michelle. It had been seven years since she'd seen or talked to any of them, and Ketros hadn't changed at all in that time. They'd left her behind, unintentionally, but left her behind all the same. What would be the point of talking to them? It would only rip open old wounds on both sides.

So after some arguing, Michelle had agreed to make sure nobody else was able to speak to Ketros.

But Ozerra was a new element.

Ozerra had never known Ketros. She wasn't Michelle's friend, she was her student. And she needed a level of support that Michelle could not possibly give without exposing Ketros's existence.

They'd talked it over during the battle, and after, whenever Michelle had had a spare moment, and had agreed to let Ozerra in – to really, properly, let Ozerra in.

…Although they were going to leave out the detail of Michelle knowing the future. That was something Ozerra didn't need to be worried about.

But still, it was difficult to actually open her mind up to another. It was a practice thing, she figured. She'd set an hard boundary for so long, now she didn't feel comfortable even when she wanted someone to cross that boundary.

In a way, it was sort of like with her chest. Growing up in North American Earth society meant that, for her, breasts were astoundingly sexual objects. For the rest of the galaxy… sure, on some level, but nobody was getting arrested for public indecency if they went shirtless. When she had been shot before Geonosis, a lot of healers had seen her topless during her recovery. At first it had been mortifying, but soon enough it was just background static, to the point where she was comfortable doing things like running into battle wearing nothing but a towel around her waist.

Which she would not be comfortable doing again. Bacta could only work so fast, and it had taken her feet two days to heal. _Two days_ of being medically banned from walking, she'd almost lost her damn mind. Next time, shoes took priority.

…And she was stalling, to avoid having to do this.

Right. Time to take the plunge.

Reluctantly, Michelle dropped most of her shields, and invited Ozerra into her mind.

* * *

She materialized in the grey space of her mindscape, and stretched. Technically speaking, her 'body' right now was just an extension of her conscious will and more of a metaphor than anything, but it felt real enough to her. Besides, it helped to get metaphysically settled.

An outline appeared, before Ozerra formed in as well, sitting in a perfect meditation lotus, eyes closed, and face serene.

"Padawan?"

Ozerra's eyes opened. Almost immediately, she let out a cry of surprise and jumped to her feet, looking around in shock.

"What happened? Where are we!?"

Michelle stood up as well, and looked around. Yup. Same old mindscape.

"Uh… in my mind? We're meditating. Together. Remember?"

Ozerra stared, her expression one of deep confusion and disbelief.

"That doesn't explain what this is! All of… this? Doesn't happen when meditating. Ever. What's going on?"  
"Wait- seriously? Oh. Oh my god, I kind of just thought that like – everybody had this. Has it just been me this whole time?" Michelle asked, feeling confused, and just a little bit stupid. Was it because of the whole situation with Ketros?

"Yeah, it's because of me being here." Ketros said, also materializing in.

Ozerra yelped, flinching away in surprise.

"Hey Ketros. Don't scare my Padawan?"

"Not my fault she's jumpy. Hi Ozerra, nice to meet you, I'm Michelle Ketros."

"No you aren't, she's Michelle Ketros! Who are you? WHAT'S GOING ON!?"

"Alright, calm down. Probably should have explained this first, but well… I figured you wouldn't believe me if I just told you. It's kind of an unbelievable story. Yes, I am Michelle Ketros. So is she. We're the same person, just from different dimensions. Alternate versions of each other. I'm… not actually a Jedi. At least, not really." Michelle explained, gesturing between her and Ketros in the process.

"When I was fifteen, I was on a mission that went south. I took a bad hit to the head, passed out on the flight back to Coruscaunt, fell into a coma, and started dying. I tried to use the Force to save myself, but I was out of it from the head wound, and didn't have an overly strong will to live. Which is where she comes in." Ketros added, nodding to Michelle.

For her part, Ozerra's eyes were wide, but she seemed to be following the story.

"Where I'm from, the Force doesn't exist. Nobody has it. I grew up as a normal civilian with my family. But when I was fifteen, I got into an accident, and was fatally wounded. It took a while for me to die, and before I did, the paramedics arrived, and well… triage. I was left for dead. So when I died, I was terrified, desperate, and _really_ wanted to live. So when at the same time, Ketros was trying to use the Force to get back to her body…"

"Michelle got caught up in it as well. But her will was stronger than mine at the time, mostly due to our very different emotional states when we died, so she took over my body. Leaving me as essentially a ghost, tethered to her mind."

"While I was suddenly waking up in a different universe, with everyone convinced I belonged there. Since Ketros had gone down from a blow to the head, when I woke up, the healers assumed that the brain damage had caused amnesia, and I was too freaked out to try and tell anybody what really happened. Especially considering it took a few months for me and Ketros to establish contact, so I didn't even know what had happened until it was too late. But since I inherited Ketros's life and Force sensitivity, I figured I might as well be a Jedi. Especially considering I knew nothing about the galaxy as a whole, and was just a scared fifteen year old suffering from a bad case of interdimensional displacement."

"Meanwhile I can't get back into control of my body, and I can't go anywhere – not without becoming one with the Force for real, and I… don't want to do that yet. At first, I was able to teach Michelle how to handle life as a Jedi, considering I didn't actually lose my memories. But she grew beyond me years ago, before she was even knighted, and I don't change at all. I'll be fifteen forever. So now I help with our mental shielding – it's crazy strong for a reason, and that reason is there's two of us making shields."

"Plus, we talk like, all the time. It's been seven years like this, we're used to sharing a mind. Besides, we are technically the same person, and we work well together. It's good to have someone else to bounce ideas off of, especially since we can trust each other with anything. As for why we're telling you this… well, we've never let anybody in here before. Not like this. All of my friends knew Ketros first, and think that I'm her. Well, except for Anakin and Obi-Wan, but I met them before I could talk to Ketros, so they also believe that I had amnesia as a teenager that I never recovered from. This isn't something I can tell them. How do I explain to Master Coltin that I'm not the girl he chose as his padawan? How do I tell Ketros's crechemates that we didn't grow up together? That I didn't grow up in the temple at all? That… that's not something I want to do. It'd hurt too much for all of us, and change nothing. It's easier for everyone to carry on with the amnesia thing. But you're different, Ozerra. You're my student. I want you to know me, to really understand who your teacher is, and why I am the way I am. And that means knowing about Ketros. You following?"

"Master, I… I had no idea. That all of that had happened to you. You – you weren't even raised in the Temple! You couldn't feel the Force until you were fifteen! You – oh stars, you're not even in your real body, are you?" Ozerra blurted out, eyes wide, and looking worryingly close to bursting into tears.

"Well… not technically. It bothered me when I was younger, but as time's gone by, I've been able to get myself looking more like… well, myself again. What with growing my hair out, dyeing it, piercing my ears… that sort of thing. Knighthood's made it easier. I'm considering getting tattoo's, actually – didn't have any on my original body, but I wanted some. Could be cool. …That's not the point. The point is, yeah, my life's been rough, and a lot weirder than most people's, but… I'm here. I'm alive. And honestly? While I miss my dimension, and my family, and my old life, I'm pretty happy right now. If I had the option to go back, I'm not sure if I would take it."

"What she's trying to say is, we're not exactly an orthodox Jedi, if only due to our interesting situation. So you can talk to us about anything. We want you to be able to talk to us. We've both lost everything, and are still here. Let us help you, Padawan."

Ozerra closed her eyes for a moment, before sitting down on the floor. Michelle and Ketros both joined her.

"I… haven't really talked about it before. I've been trying to let go of my grief, not dwell on it."

"Sometimes, when you're feeling bad, you need to dwell on it for a while before you can move on. Trying to pretend you never hand those feelings in the first place will just make more problems than it solves. …You said his name was Master Retlaw, right?" Michelle prompted, tone gentle.

Ozerra took a deep breath, and nodded.

"Yeah. Master Iden Retlaw. He chose me as his padawan when I was eleven. Said that the Force led him to me, and it would be foolish not to act on that. He was always serene and patient, and confident in everything he did. Said that the Force would see us through to where we were meant to be. He didn't want me to go to Geonosis, but I insisted. The Force wanted me to go, so he let me come, and – and I know that the Force wanted me to save him, but I didn't, we got separated, and he was shot, and – and I didn't even _know_ until I found him dying on the ground! Three years, and I couldn't even sense when he was dying! I failed him! And I can't even tell anyone about it because I _know_ I'm not supposed to be hurting this much, and that Master Retlaw would want me to let go, but I… I can't. And I'm _scared,_ I'm scared to go into battle, and I'm scared to have another Master, and I'm scared that I'll lose you too. I mean… we're in a war. And you're such a big target, the Separatists _really_ want you dead. So I know there's a big chance that you might not make it, and it always just gets bigger, and… I don't know. I'm just sad and scared all the time." She said, voice rising in pitch and intensity near the end, before dropping off again, and ending with a self conscious shrug.

Ketros and Michelle made alarmed eye contact over Ozerra's head.

Ozerra was worried about losing Michelle, like she lost her last Master. That Michelle would die in combat, or the Separatists would have her killed due to her fame.

But Michelle knew that her fame was just a way for Palpatine to easily keep an eye on her. Knew that with the deadman's switch still a standing threat, he couldn't afford to kill her. Those orders would have been passed along to Dooku, who would shoot down any concentrated Separatist attempt on her life. So as long as Michelle didn't go around making stupid mistakes in battle, she was perfectly safe.

…Well, as safe as anyone sitting in a stalemate with an angry Sith Lord could be.

But Ozerra didn't know that, and really didn't need to know those details.

Michelle sighed. This Master thing was hard.

"Look, Padawan. I'm going to be honest here. We… haven't told you everything about my situation. There's more details, but those are incredible complicated, and you having the information will just put you in danger. So I need you to trust me when I say, there are greater forces at play here than anyone is aware, and I know _exactly_ what I am doing. I also know that the Separatists want to keep a very close eye on me, but also want me to stay alive, for reasons I can't fully explain, but can summarize as essentially several years of a mutual blackmail stalemate that they can't afford to break. If I die… well, let's just say I have information that can ruin several centuries worth of planning, and they really don't want me to do that. So my death, while plausible, isn't going to be a Separatist end goal anytime soon. …Um, all of that is _incredibly_ secret for the record, and I'm going to need you to never repeat it to anybody ever. Same with me being from a different dimension, and Ketros existing. Just, in general, pretend this talk never happened."

Ozerra did not look particularly comforted. She actually looked somewhere between alarmed and suspicious.

"So… whose side are you on?"

…Yeah, that was a fair concern to have. Michelle's description had been pretty suspicious, and they were at war. Really, a lot of the things Michelle did ranged from being kind of suspicious, to potentially incriminating. Good thing she knew how to hide her actions.

"The Republic. Always the Republic. In general, my motives are to uphold democracy, protect the Jedi, and with any luck eradicate the Sith. The last ones the big one. I might not use… strictly approved methods to get there, but at the end, my goals have never changed, and probably never will. But my opponents don't play by the rules, so I can't afford to either."

Ozerra still looked suspicious. Ketros pulled an alarmed face, and silently gestured for Michelle to do something.

"…I promise, when this is all over, I'll explain everything to you. No secrets, complete honesty. But for now, I need you to trust me. Can you do that?"

"I… don't know. What happens if I don't?"

"Hm. Well… Nothing, I guess. I'd have to hide what I'm up to from you more, and it would probably make things strained between us, but that's about it. I promised to make you a Jedi, and that's what I'm going to do. If you don't trust me now, I can wait until you do trust me, or I can handle the fact that our bond won't have any trust in it. I'm not interested in forcing you to feel or do anything."

Ozerra nodded, and then gave a small smile.

"I'm not sure if I trust you yet. But I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt for now, and I realise that your situation is… entirely more complicated than I could ever predict, or even understand. So I'll try. Is that okay?"

Michelle grinned back, relieved.

"That's all I ever ask."

* * *

 **AN: Look man, I'm just saying, in the middle of a war, Michelle's methods go from being eccentric to being suspicious as all hell. Ozerra had some legitimate concerns that Michelle was Separatist, or at least working with them. And I mean… she's not entirely wrong. Michelle does have a deal with Palpatine after all.**

 **This may be the first time Michelle accidentally incriminates herself, but it's not going to be the last. Her problem is, she needs to start taking action, but almost all the actions she needs to take run the risk of alienating her allies. So she needs to find the happy medium of doing what needs to be done, while keeping anyone from finding out. Let's just hope nobody interrupts her in the middle of something that can't be explained away. After all, there's quite a few villains that are high ranking members of the Republic right now, and if someone catches Michelle being proactive about it… well, it's best to just not get caught.**

 **Anyways, I'm tired as hell and going to bed. Ahsoka shows up next chapter, and you should all go read Division. Cheers bitches.**


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